Quality literature and poetry from the
1000 Good
Books List
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IN ASSOCIATION
WITH
New Oxford Book of Christian Verse
Donald Davie
“This anthology reflects
the Christian faith as it has been professed and practised in all its varieties through
the centuries. The poems included range from the Anglo-Saxon masterpiece, ‘The Dream
of the Rood’, to works of twentieth-century poets such as Eliot, Auden, Betjeman, and
Geoffrey Hill.” -- from the jacket. Excellent selections from Joseph Addison, William
Blake, Anne Bradstreet, John Bunyan, Robert Burns, Geoffery Chaucer, Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, William Cowper, Emily Dickinson, John Donne, George Herbert, Gerard Manley
Hopkins, and many, many more.
Little Women
Louisa May Alcott
Little Women is a heartwarming American
classic, adored for Louisa May Alcott’s lively and vivid portraits of the endearing
March sisters: talented tomboy Jo, pretty Meg, shy Beth, temperamental Amy, and for the
courage, humor and ingenuity they display to survive poverty and the absence of their
father during the Civil War. Based on Alcott’s own Yankee childhood, Little Women
is a treasure--a story whose enduring values of patience, loyalty, and love have kept this
extraordinary family close to the hearts of generation after generation of readers. A hardcover
edition is also available. Other equally exceptional Louisa May Alcott books include Little Men, Jo’s Boys,
Good Wives,
An
Old-Fashioned Girl, Eight Cousins,
Rose in Bloom,
and Under the
Lilacs.
Robinson Crusoe
Daniel Defoe
Be sure to read an unabridged edition of this
book (most are abridged--out of dozens of editions published today, this was only
unabridged text I could find). I discovered the difference between the abridged and
unabridged editions when I found an old copy of Robinson Crusoe published in the
1800’s, and settled in to re-read a favorite book of childhood. To my amazement, in
the 19th century unabridged edition, Robinson questions whether he has been shipwrecked as
a punishment from God for disobeying his father’s wishes, who did not want him to go
to sea. He finds a Bible among the ship wreckage, and begins to read it diligently,
whereupon his life is changed. Much of the story is infused with Defoe’s description
of Robinson’s subsequent relationship with God, and Robinson’s awareness and
gratefulness that God is helping him survive. When he discovers cannibals on the island,
his motivation for befriending Friday is to share the gospel with him! An uplifting and
inspirational adventure tale in its original form.
Oliver Twist
Charles Dickens
“I have thrown my whole heart and soul into Oliver
Twist,” wrote young Charles Dickens in 1836. (Dickens had a difficult childhood,
made worse by his father’s imprisonment in debtor’s prison, and saw something of
the life that Oliver led.) After the book was published, Oliver and Mr. Bumble soon became
household words. In tracing the boy’s story, Dickens made a scathing comment on the
inhumanity of the newly enacted Poor Law and startled readers with his convincing picture
of the criminal underworld. One of the most famous passages in Oliver Twist reads:
“Mr. Limbkins, I beg your pardon, sir! Oliver Twist has asked for more!” There
was a general start. Horror was depicted on every countenance. “For more!” said
Mr. Limbkins. “Compose yourself, Bumble, and answer me distinctly. Do I understand
that he asked for more, after he had eaten the supper allotted by the dietary?”
“He did, sir,” replied Bumble.” A hardcover
edition is also available. Other Dickens’ books from the hardcover series that
make wonderful family read-alouds include: Great
Expectations (a must read), Nicholas
Nickleby, Little
Dorrit, Master
Humphrey’s Clock and A Child’s History of England (we loved the
History--highly recommended), David
Copperfield, The Pickwick
Papers, The
Christmas Books (which includes The Christmas Carol and the delightful The
Cricket on the Hearth), or for the enterprising among us, the full 21 volume set of
the New Oxford Illustrated Dickens--his complete works, including the ones mentioned
here, available for a small fortune.
Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates
Mary Mapes Dodge
“From glistening ice
roads to frozen canals, in a wonderland where even the richest nobles thrill to the
gliding joys of winter, everyone is awaiting the fabulous race to win the magnificent
Silver Skates ... except Hans Brinker and his sister Gretel. For the Brinkers are
desperately poor, friendless; with their father felled by a crippling head wound, Mother
and the children must battle simply to survive. And while Hans and Gretel are strong,
fast, disciplined, and loyal ... on hand-carved wooden skates, they can’t compete
against trained rich kids with fine steel blades. But sometimes ... sometimes ... good
people are given a chance. Sometimes strangers do care. And sometimes a
family’s love and loyalty can struggle against even the cruelest twists of
fate...” A simply beautiful story that stays with you forever. Unfortunately, the
publisher is out of stock of the paperback
edition, but keep checking this link to see if it’s been reprinted.
Captains Courageous
Rudyard Kipling
American maritime adventure at its greatest!
The setting is the We’re Here, a small fishing boat whose crew members rescue
Harvey Cheyne, a spoiled millionaire’s son, when he is washed overboard from a luxery
ocean liner. Unimpressed with his tales of wealth and privilege, the captain refuses to
take him back to port and instead puts the boy to work to earn his keep. Kipling is
masterful documenting the life aboard a cod trawler at the end of the last century, and
the all-night fish gutting and salting sessions, the risks of a fisherman’s life, and
sharing life with the crew causes Harvey to undergo a personal transformation: from the
arrogant and pampered son of a millionaire to an admirable young man who has learned the
values of hard work, simple living, and self-reliance. Also in hardcover.
The Call of the Wild
Jack London
Buck, part St. Bernard, part Scotch
shepherd, is forcibly taken from his comfortable home in the Santa Clara valley and
shipped to the Alaskan Klondike gold fields to be trained as a sled dog. Encountering
friends and foes, Buck eventually reverts to his primitive, wolflike nature and becomes
the leader of the strongest wolf pack in Alaska. When he is transformed into the legendary
Ghost Dog of the Klondike, he has become a true hero. Often considered to be Jack
London’s masterpiece, he borrows from his own experiences during the Klondike gold
rush of 1897 to fashion this timeless tale. Also available in hardcover.
Other finely-crafted adventure tales by London include White Fang
and The Sea
Wolf.
The Chosen
Chaim Potok
“Few stories offer more warmth, wisdom, or
generosity than this tale of two boys, their fathers, their friendship, and the chaotic
times in which they live. In 1940’s Brooklyn, an accident throws Reuven Malther and
Danny Saunders together. Despite their differences (Reuven is a secular Jew with an
intellectual, Zionist father; Danny is the brilliant son and rightful heir to a Hasidic
rebbe), the young men form a deep, if unlikely, friendship. Together they negotiate
adolescence, family conflicts, the crisis of faith engendered when Holocaust stories begin
to emerge in the U.S., loss, love, and the journey to adulthood. The intellectual and
spiritual clashes between fathers, between each son and his own father, and between the
two young men, provide a unique backdrop for this exploration of fathers, sons, faith,
loyalty, and, ultimately, the power of love.” Also in hardcover.
Treasure Island
Robert Louis Stevenson
One of the greatest works of literature of all
time, “Treasure Island is a stunning yarn of piracy on the tropic seas--an
unforgettable tale of treachery that embroils a host of legendary swashbucklers, from
honest young Jim Hawkins to sinister, two-timing Israel Hands, to evil incarnate, blind
Pew. But above all, Treasure Island is a complex study of good and evil, as
embodied by that hero-villain, Long John Silver.” --The Publisher. This tale has been
winning the hearts of everyone who ever longed for romance, courage, hairbreadth-escapes,
and high adventure since its publication in 1883. A paperback
edition is also available. Other absorbing tales by R. L. Stevenson include Kidnapped (paperback), David Balfour,
The Black
Arrow (paperback),
and Master of
Ballantrae.
Penrod
Booth Tarkington
Set in pre-World War I America, Penrod is the
hilarious story of a boy’s life with his friends and family, and the situations he
unwittingly gets himself into. There is no way this simplistic description can do it
justice. This is the only book that we have read as a family that everyone deep
belly-laughs all the way through. If you enjoy it as much as us, be sure to look into the
other Penrod stories: Penrod and Sam,
and Penrod Jashber (tragically out of print.)
The Hobbit
J. R. R. Tolkien
The Hobbit is the fantasy that defines the
genre from a masterful scholar and writer who was a Christian and a friend and colleague
of C. S. Lewis. A hardcover
edition is also available (as well as a lavishly illustrated 75th anniversary
hardcover edition). The Lord of the Rings
trilogy follows The Hobbit. The Lord of the Rings is a grander, deeper, more
probing story than The Hobbit, full of Biblical symbolism. The nobility of the
heroes is more courageous and inspiring; the evil of the enemies is more dreadful. Parents
may want to read it first before giving it to their 6th graders. The Lord of the Rings
trilogy includes: Fellowship of
the Ring (hardcover),
The Two
Towers (hardcover),
and The
Return of the King (hardcover).
The Lord of the Rings can also be purchased as a hardcover set
or in the one-volume
illustrated companion edition to the 75th anniversary The Hobbit. In addition,
a boxed set of all 4 volumes (The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy) is available
in paperback.
Whew!
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Jules Verne
Because of his attention to the details
of scientific facts and advances in technology, Jules Verne is considered one of the
founders of modern science fiction. In this story, a deadly, huge sea monster is sinking
ships. Three men who are sent to investigate--a French scientist, his trusty sidekick, and
a Canadian harpoonist--are thrown from the deck of their American warship when the monster
attacks. A door opens on the side of the monster, and they are taken inside the greatest
submarine in the world, the top-secret Nautilus commanded by a madman who will take them
20,000 leagues into the depths, from sunken Atlantis to the South Pole. A hardcover
edition is also available. Other fantastic stories by Jules Verne include Around the World
in Eighty Days, From the Earth
to the Moon, Journey to the
Center of the Earth, The Mysterious
Island, and one of historical fiction, Michael Strogoff.
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