Advancing in age now in the recommended read-aloud series, here are my recommendations for 12-14-year-olds. Refer to the lists for earlier ages here and here.
Some may think, as I once did, that read-aloud is only for young children. But as I thought of what families reading aloud meant in pioneer times, my perspective completely changed. In the days of yesteryear, before TV and internet fought for our eye-glazing attention, families remained close and enjoyed marvelous adventures together during evenings spent reading aloud in front of the fireplace or in dim rooms lit by candle or lantern light. Lifelong memories were made in those cabins on the frontier, or Victorian homes on city streets, wherever they called home. It’s a beautiful scene that I wanted to re-create with my own children. I hope you’ll try it too. Your children will treasure it in future years far more than other activities.
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle
The Story of King Arthur and His Knights by Howard Pyle
Tenggren’s Golden Tales From the Arabian Nights
by Gustaf Tenggren
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
Born Free by Joy Adamson
I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino
The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric Kelly
Letters from Rifka by Karen Hesse
Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Helen Keller: The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
Call of the Wild by Jack London
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
The Mystery of the Periodic Table by Benjamin Wiker
The Cat of Bubastes by G.A. Henty
Archimedes and the Door of Science by Jeanne Bendick
The Captain’s Dog: My Journey With the Lewis & Clark Tribe
by Roland Smith
The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter
The Bulletproof George Washington by David Barton
Amistad: A Long Road to Freedom by Walter Dean Myers
The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom
Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13
by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger
The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Vern
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