In our book-centered homeschool I am always looking for the best books to spread a rich feast of ideas. And I'm always finding new-to-us books that we love whether 5, 10, 30, or even 100 years old or more. Every year I am discovering new authors and books with the helps of booklists from Sabbath Mood Homeschool, Jestress's Forgotten Books and Stories, and even from my own Best Free Nature Lore Books List.
I adore finding vintage fiction and nonfiction books--science, history, folklore--to read with my kids as part of their homeschooling. I love discovering them at used books sales, but thanks to the internet, I can find so, so, so many books that are vintage or out-of-print that I would never find in a life-time of searching but we can still enjoy them on a tablet.
Here are some of the titles we have been enjoying this school year.
Insect Adventures by J. Henri Fabre retold for young readers by Louise Seymour Hasbrouck
We have tried reading Fabre before but this retelling for younger readers is very accessible and also goes so deeply into insect life and behavior. What is so special and Fabre is that the information is often presented within a story of how he discovered the insect behavior through careful observation.
I have a child who loves to create habitats for insects and other creatures to closely monitor their behaviors and life cycles. This book directly models that type of watchful learning and inspires more of it. Today, reading about the cabbage moths, we learned an explanation for behavior she observed a few months ago. I am grateful that it is available to download for free from Google Play! I then uploaded the PDF to Google Books for reading.
The Story of Marco Polo by Olive M. Price
After reading this book about Marco Polo originally published in 1880 to two children and starting it with a third, I discerned that I preferred this 1953 version because it was more fun. Don't get me wrong, I still like the 1880 book. But my 2nd graders seem to look forward to it more when I use the newer title. I just started it with 2nd grader, Harry, and we are loving it and the illustrations really take it over the top. It is a very exciting and interesting story no matter where you find it. I don't own this title, which is why we are using Internet Archive, but I try to buy any others of this series (Grosset & Dunlap "Signature Books" series of Names That Made History) when I can find them. Complete list by Wildflowers and Marbles can be found here.
Wild Folk in the Mountains by Carroll Lane Fenton
I am a big fan of nature lore books that follow a particular animal to show its behavior. Books like this were popular in the 50s and 60s and usually the animal is given a name to personalize it and many interesting facts are learned within the framework of a story about that animal. One of my favorite authors of this genre is Robert McClung and while I have plans to read his book, Redbird: The Story of a Cardinal later this term, lately I've been enjoying this title with my youngest two learners. It has short chapters on animals who live in the western mountain regions of the US and it often has us laughing, smiling, and wondering. The author has many other nature books, including one called Plants that Feed Us which I also hope to get to this term as we study crops for our special study. I came across this title by following Sabbath Mood Homeschool on Facebook. She lists so many great nature options and most of the older ones are on Archive.
Ok. It is only 33 years old so not exactly vintage, but it is out-of-print. Stories are arranged regionally and are set in many different time periods, including modern times, and it is my favorite collection of Native American stories so far. I'm always reading aloud myths and folklore because we all love it, but I'm especially glad I found this book to read this year as we restarted our American history cycle with the period through the 1600s. I'm continually finding better books to read to give my children an age appropriate but nuanced picture of American history and culture. To me, folklore and myths add another layer to that picture.
The Golden Fleece and the Heroes who lived before Achilles by Padraic Colum
Also on Project Gutenberg and available as a reprint. After our homeschool evaluation at the end of our school year (a PA requirement), I took my kids out for a donut and asked everyone to list one thing they would like more in their homeschool and one thing they would like less of next year. My daughter said that she would want more mythology so I selected this book. I was very ignorant about the story of Jason and the Argonauts and we've really been enjoying this retelling which folds in many more Greek myths along the way. We only read about 8-10 pages a week so we are stretching it out across the whole year, but it has become a cozy touchpoint in our weeks. As much as often violent Greek mythology can be cozy.
Winter Cottage by Carol Ryrie Brink
I read about this book on Jestress's Forgotten Books and Stories and it seemed like a great choice for this time of year. It is a straightforward, cozy story with enough unknowns to keep us hooked. Our other lunch book has long chapters so this one is a great partner to it. The book is still in print but it wasn't available through any of my library cards on Libby so I'm thankful to be able to borrow it from Archive.org.
These are just some of the vintage books we are reading and learning from right now. Let me know if you have any new or old favorites to recommend.
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