China

We have "spent" two weeks in China and these are the books we read (again in no particular order):

Lo Po Po (Young)
C is for China (So)
China ABCs (Schroeder)
The Emperor's Silent Army (O'Connor)
Tikki Tikki Tembo*
The Great Wall (Everet)
The Story of Ping (Flack)*
DK China
China: The Land (Kalman)
China:The People (Kalman)
China:The Culture (Kalman)
A True Book: China (Friedman)
You Wouldn't Want to Work on the Great Wall of China (Morley)
The Empty Pot (Demi)*
Ruby's Wish (Bridges)
The Five Chinese Brothers (Bishop)*
Roses Sing on New Snow (Yee)
The Song of Mulan (Lee)
Daisy Comes Home (Brett)*

*Our favorites

Central and South America Reading List

This is what we read to complement our Classical Conversations studies on South America. In no particular order:


Atlas of South America (Foster)
Explore South America (Kalman)
Monkeys of Central and South America (Martin)

Rain Forest Animals (World Book Encyclopedia)
Lands of Grass (Fowler)
Red Eyed Tree Frog (Bishop)
So Say the Little Monkeys (Van Laan)
The Umbrella (Brett)
Central America (People and Places)
Cities of Blood (Ackroyd)- we just looked at some pictures
Love and Roast Chicken (Knuston)
The Inca (Takacs)
The Maya (Takacs)
Montezuma and the Fall of the Aztecs (Kimmel)
The Boy Who Wouidn't Obey (Rockwell)
Aztec, Inca and Maya (DK)-mostly looked at the pictures
Machu Pichu (Somervill)
Score One for the Sloths (Lester)
Amazon Basin ( Reynolds)
Exploration into Latin America (Alda)
Slowly, Slowly, Slowly, Said the Sloth (Carle)
The Great Kapok Tree (Cherry)
A True Book (Brazil)
A True Book(Venezuela)

We also learned the Geography Songs pertaining to Central and South America, played
with South American puzzles, looked at videos of Sloths on youtube.

Africa Reading List

A is for Africa (Onyefulu)
Journey Into Africa (Knight)
Look What Came from Africa (Harvey)
Elizabeti's Doll (Bodeen)*-Tanzania
Beatrice's Goat (McBrier)- Uganda
Wangari's Trees of Peace (Winter)- Kenya
I Lost my Tooth in Africa (Diakite)- Mali
We All Went on Safari(Krebs)* Tanzania
Bringing The Rain to Kapiti Plain* (Aardema)-African Plains
For You are a Kenyan Child (Cunnane)-Kenya
Pretty Salma (Daly)-South Africa
Galimoto (Williams)
Jambo Means Hello(Feelings)
Africa is not a Country (Knight)
My Painted House,My friendly Chicken and Me (Angelou)
Kente Colors (Chocolate)
Water Hole Waiting (Kurtz)
African Rhinos (
Masai and I (Kroll)
Honey Honey Lion (Brett)
African Animals (Squire)
African Elephants (Eckart)
Giraffes (Lepthien)
Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters (Steptoe)
The Day Gogo Went to Vote (Sisulu)

Geography- The Middle East

As a supplement to our Classical Conversations studies, I decided to start a more in-depth World Geography study with N. Our first "stop" is the Middle East. This is not an organize unit study but more of a pulling of resources from different sources and reading them as we are able.

So far, this is what we have read:

The King and the Three Thieves (A Persian Tale)- Balouch
The Librarian of Basra (A True Story from Iraq- Winter
Silly Chicken (Pakistan)- Kahn
Tunjur! Tunjur!(A Palestinian Folktale)- (McDonald)
Lugalbanda, the Boy who Got Caught Up in a War (Ancient Iraq)- Henderson

Ancient Greece Reading

We are doing Classical Conversations Cycle 1 this year.This cycle covers Ancient History. As a complement we have been reading some picture books on Ancient Greece and Greek mythology. A. is following along as far as his Challenge A schedule allows him. I am going to compile here the books we have read on this topic:

(N)(A)King Midas and the Golden Touch (Craft)
(N)Cupid and Psyche (Craft)
(N)The Librarian who Measured the Earth (Lasky)
(N)Wise Guy:The Life and Philosophy of Socrates (Usher)
(N)Persephone (Clayton)
(N)(A)Pegasus (Mayer)
(N)The section on Greece from the Usborne book of World History

October Reading

We have continued with our reading about the Civil War. This is going to be the last of the Civil War books since Nicolas informed me, "Mom, I am tired of reading about war". And frankly, I am tired too.

This is the final Civil War books for both A. and N. :

(N)Just a Few Words Mr. Lincoln (Fritz)
(N)Journey to Freedom (Wright)
(A)Civil War Spy (Van Lew)
(A)The Visual Dictionary of the Civil War (Eyewitness)
(Me)Soldier's Heart
(N)Billy and the Rebel (Ready to Read series)
(N)A Picture of Robert E. Lee (Adler)
(Me)Stonewall (Fritz)

Non Civil War books read in October so far:

(N)St. Francis of Assisi (Kennedy)
(A)Train to Somewhere (Bunting)-orphan trains
(A)Ancient Egypt (Langley)

American History Through Picture Books

N. and I have been reading our way through American History via picture books. Rather than listing them on the side bars, I am just going to jot down here the ones we have read. I haven't been good at keeping up a list so if I remember some more I'll come back and edit this post. We are now up to the Civil War.

Here is the list:

Settling of the West, Frontier and Pioneer Life:

Dandelions (Bunting)
Wagons West (Farrar)
Cassie's Journey (Brett)
Dakota Dougout (Turner)
A Fourth of July in the Plains (Turner)
Grandma's Essie's Covered Wagon (Williams)

Civil War

Abraham Lincoln (Venezia)
A Picture Book of Harriet Tubman (Adler)
A Picture Book of Abraham Lincoln (Adler)
Freedom River (Rappaport)
When Harriet Met Sourjourner (Clinton)
Wagon Train (Kalman)
Almost to Freedom (Nelson)
The Gettysburg Address (Ill. by McCurdy)
Ghost of the Civil War (Harness)
Daily Life on Southern Plantation (Erickson)
Duel of the Ironclads (O'Brien)
Secrets of a Civil War Submarine (Walker)
The Last Brother (Noble)
Abe Lincoln Remembers (Turner)
Follow the Drinking Gourd (winter)
The Blue and the Gray (Bunting)
Frederick Douglas and the Last Day of Slavery (Miller)
Barefoot: Escape on the Underground Railroad
Ox Cart Man (Hall)
Birdie's Lighthouse (Hopkinson)
Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt (Hopkinson)
Now Let me Fly (Johnson)
The Wagon (Johnston)
The Bobbin Girl (McCully)
Popcorn at the Palace (McCully)
The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter (Olson)
Pink and Say (Polacco)
Journey to Freedom (Wright)


I know there are a bunch more we read about the Westward Expansion. I just have to find the titles so I can keep a list all in one place.