New Start for Literature

Some Thoughts Concerning Education explains how to educate that mind using three distinct methods: the development of a healthy body; the formation of a virtuous character; and the choice of an appropriate academic curriculum.

~ John Locke, 1693

This year's Language Arts Curriculum is nothing short of daunting.

Title and Author ..................................................................................................Lexile Level
A Lion to Guard Us, by Clyde Robert Bulla ...........................................................360
Stone Fox, by John Reynolds Gardiner ..................................................................550
Sarah, Plain and Tall, by Patricia MacLachlan ......................................................560
Henry Huggins, by Beverly Cleary ..........................................................................670
Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White .................................................................................680
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E.L. Konigsburg .....700
Li Lun, Lad of Courage, by Carolyn Treffinger ......................................................720
In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson, by Bette Bao Lord .....................730
A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle .............................................................740
The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury ...........................................................740
The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton .................................................................................750
The Bronze Bow, by Elizabeth George Speare ......................................................760
Little House on the Prairie, by Laura Ingalls Wilder ...........................................760
The Book of Three, by Lloyd Alexander ................................................................770
Tuck Everlasting, by Natalie Babbitt ......................................................................770
The Sign of the Beaver, by Elizabeth George Speare ...........................................770
Walk Two Moons, by Sharon Creech ......................................................................770
War Comes to Willie Freeman, by Christopher and Lincoln Collier ..................770
The Cricket in Times Square, by George Selden....................................................780
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, by Robert C. O’Brien ..................................790
My Side of the Mountain, by Jean Craighead George ..........................................810
Call It Courage, by Armstrong Sperry ...................................................................830
Johnny Tremain, by Esther Forbes ........................................................................840
Ramona Quimby, Age 8, by Beverly Cleary ..........................................................860
The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkein.........................................................860
The Cay, by Theodore Taylor ..................................................................................860
Pippi Longstocking, by Astrid Lindgren .................................................................870
The Hundred Dresses, by Eleanor Estes ................................................................870
Dragonwings, by Laurence Yep ...............................................................................870
Jacob Have I Loved, by Katherine Paterson .........................................................880
Shiloh, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor ........................................................................890
Caddie Woodlawn, by Carol Ryrie Brink ................................................................890
Old Yeller, by Fred Gipson.........................................................................................910
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred D. Taylor ..........................................920
The Dark Is Rising, by Susan Cooper .....................................................................920
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis .......................................940
Bud, Not Buddy, by Christopher Paul Curtis .........................................................950
White Fang, by Jack London ...................................................................................970
Anne of Green Gables, by Lucy Maud Montgomery ...........................................990
The Door in the Wall, by Marguerite de Angeli ...................................................990
Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O’Dell .......................................................1000
Ben and Me, by Robert Lawson .............................................................................1010
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne ................................................1030
Hound of the Baskervilles, by Arthur Conan Doyle ..........................................1090
Across Five Aprils, by Irene Hunt .......................................................................1100
Catherine, Called Birdy, by Karen Cushman .......................................................1170
War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells ........................................................................1170
Swiss Family Robinson, by Johann Wyss ..........................................................1260
The Incredible Journey, by Sheila Burnford .....................................................1320