Tag Archives: Great books for boys

Great Books for Boys

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Great Books for Boys

Great Books For Boys

Louisa M. Alcott

  • Little Men
  • Jo’s Boys

 Richard Atwater

  • Mr. Poppin’s Penguins

 R. M. Ballantyne – use caution with this author due to potential issues with content. See this blog post before handing a book to your son.

He wrote over 100 adventure stories. For a list, click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._M._Ballantyne

 Clyde Robert Bulla  (he wrote over 50 books for children)

  • Riding the Pony Express (1948)
  • The Secret Valley (1949)
  • Eagle Feather (1953)
  • Star of Wild Horse Canyon (1953)
  • Squanto, Friend of the White Man (1954)
  • The Sword in the Tree (1956)
  • Pirate’s Promise (1958)
  • The Valentine Cat (1959)
  • Benito (1961)
  • Viking Adventure (1963)
  • The Ghost of Windy Hill (1968)
  • Pocahontas and the Strangers (1971)
  • Shoeshine Girl (1975)
  • The Beast of Lor (1977)
  • A Lion to Guard Us (1981) ISBN 0-690-04096-2
  • The Chalk Box Kid (1987)
  • “The Christmas Coat” (1989)
  • A Place for Angels (1995)
  • The Paint Brush Kid (1999)
  • Daniel’s Duck
  • Charlie’s House

Sam Campbell  (there is a site with some to read free online or purchase some at libraryanded.com)

  • How’s Inky?
  • Moose Country
  •  The Seven Secrets of Somewhere Lake
  • Sweet Sue’s Adventure

Castleberry Farm Books     http://castleberryfarmspress.com/mystery%20books.html

  • The Farm Mystery Series
  • Footprints in the Barn
  • The Mysterious Message
  • Midnight Sky
  • Who, me?
  • Weighty Matters
  • Where There’s Smoke
  • The History Mystery
  • Light’s Out!
  • Trapped!
  • The Case of the Missing Man

G. K. Chesterson 

  • The Napoleon of Notting Hill

Childhood of Famous Americans biography series (there are many more than I have listed)

  • Davy Crockett
  • Daniel Boone
  • John Adams
  • Walt Disney

 John Christopher

  • The Tripod Series:
  • The White Mountains (1967)
  • The City of Gold and Lead (1968)
  • The Pool of Fire (1968)
  • When the Tripods Came (prequel to the series, written 20 years after the trilogy)

Beverly Cleary

  • Henry Huggins, published in 1950
  • Henry and Beezus, published in 1952
  • Henry and Ribsy, published in 1954
  • Henry and the Paper Route, published in 1957
  • Henry and the Clubhouse, published in 1962
  • Ribsy, published in 1964

Alice Dalgliesh

  • The Bears On Hemlock Mountain

Richard Henry Dana

  • Two Years Before The Mast

Meindert  deJong

  • Along Came a Dog
  • Wheel on the School

 William  Pene du Bois

  • Twenty One Balloons

Ed Dunlop

  •  “The Terrestria Chronicles”. It’s an allegory, knights type tale.

 Allen W. Eckert

  • Incident at Hawke’s Hill
  • Return to Hawke’s Hill

 Walter D. Edmonds

  • The Matchlock Gun

Elizabeth Enright

  • Gone Away Lake series
  • Gone-Away Lake (1957)
  • Return to Gone-Away (1961)

The Saturdays series (about the Melendy Family)

  • The Saturdays
  • The Four Story Mistake
  • Then There Were Five
  • The Melendy Family
  • Spidereweb for Two: A Melendy Maze

Eleanor Estes

  • The Moffats (1941)
  • The Middle Moffat (1942)
  • The Moffat Museum (1983)
  • Ginger Pye (1951)

Walter Farley

  • The Black Stallion (1941)
  • The Black Stallion Returns (1945)
  • Son of the Black Stallion (1947)
  • The Island Stallion (1948)
  • The Black Stallion and Satan (1949)
  • The Blood Bay Colt (1951)
  • The Island Stallion’s Fury (1951)
  • The Black Stallion’s Filly (1952)
  • The Black Stallion Revolts (1953)
  • The Black Stallion’s Sulky Colt (1954)
  • The Island Stallion Races (1955)
  • The Black Stallion’s Courage (1956)
  • The Black Stallion Mystery (1957)
  • The Horse Tamer (1958)
  • The Black Stallion and Flame (1960)
  • Man o’ War (1962
  • The Black Stallion Challenged (1964)
  • The Black Stallion’s Ghost (1969)
  • The Black Stallion and the Girl (1971)
  • The Black Stallion Legend (1983) 

 John D. Fitzgerald

  • The Great Brain (1967)
  • More Adventures of the Great Brain (1969)
  • Me and My Little Brain (1971)
  • The Great Brain At The Academy (1972)
  • The Great Brain Reforms (1973)
  • The Return of the Great Brain (1974)
  • The Great Brain Does It Again (1976)
  • The Great Brain Is Back (Published in 1995 from loose notes after the author’s death)

Esther Hoskins Forbes

  • Johnny Tremain

 Ruth Stiles Gannett

  • My Father’s Dragon
  • Elmer and the Dragon
  • The Dragons of Blueland

 James A. Garfield

  • Follow My Leader

 Jean Craighead George

Mountain Series:

  • My Side of the Mountain
  • On the Far Side of the Mountain
  • Frightful’s Mountain
  • Frightful’s Daughter
  • Frightful’s Daughter Meets the Baron Weasel

Other Books:

  • The Summer of the Falcon
  • Dipper of Copper Creek
  •  Tree Castle Island
  • Julie of the Wolves

Fred Gipson

  • Old Yeller
  • Savage Sam

 Kenneth Grahame

  • The Wind in the Willows

Ernest Hemingway

  • The Old Man and the Sea

 Marguerite Henry

  • King of the Wind
  • The White Stallion of Lipizza

 G. A. Henty

  • He wrote lots (over 99 books) of historical fiction that are full of adventure! For a list of books in historical chronological order, click here: http://www.henty.com/s86p1428.htm

 Brian Jacques

  • The Redwall Series

 Lois Walfrid Johnson

  • Viking Quest series
  • Raiders from the Sea
  • Mystery of the Silver Coins
  • The Invisible Friend
  • Heart of Courage
  • The Raider’s Promise

 Rudyard Kipling

  • Just So Stories
  • The Jungle Book
  • The Second Jungle Book
  • Puck of Pook’s Hill
  • KIm

Jim Kjelgaard

  • Big Red
  • Outlaw Red
  • Irish Red
  • Snow Dog
  • Wild Trek
  • Rebel Siege
  • Stormy

Jean Lee Latham

  • Carry On, Mr. Bowditch

Lois Lenski

  • Corn Farm Boy (10th of the American Regional Series)

C. S. Lewis

The Narnia Series

  • The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950) 
  • Prince Caspian(1951)
  •  The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)
  •  The Silver Chair (1953)
  •  The Horse and His Boy (1954)
  •  The Magicians Nephew(1955)
  •  The Last Battle (1956)

Jack London Not all of his work is suitable for children, with a careful screening there should be more

  • The Call of the Wild

 Robert McCloskey

  • Homer Price
  • More Homer Price
  • Centerburg Tales

Ralph Moody

Little Britches series:

  • Little Britches      
  • Man of the Family    
  • The Home Ranch    
  • Mary Emma and Company    
  • The Fields of Home    
  • Shaking the Nickel
  • The Dry Divide 
  • Horse of a Different Color 

 Farley Mowat (Caution: A parent gave me this warning: some of Mowat’s other books are not for kids to read alone, though they make excellent read alouds with some editing.)

  • Owls in the Family

Walt Morey  (he wrote a lot of books, many are out of print, so check your library!)

  • Kavik the Wolf Dog
  • Home Is the North
  • Gentle Ben
  •  Canyon Winter

 Edith Nesbit

  • The Book Of Dragons
  • Five Children and It
  • The Railway Children

 Sterling North

  • Rascal

 Scott O’Dell  (he has many other children’s books, too)

  • Island of the Blue Dolphins
  • Zia
  •  Sing Down the Moon

 Gary Paulsen

Brian’s Saga

  • Hatchet (1987) (Has an alternate ending which makes continuity with Brian’s Winter)
  • The River (Hatchet: The Return) (1991)
  • Brian’s Winter (Hatchet: Winter) (1996)
  • Brian’s Return (Hatchet: The Call) (1999)
  • Brian’s Hunt (2003)

 Tucket Saga

  • Tucket(1969)
  • Call Me Francis Tucket (1995)
  • Tucket’s Ride (1997)
  • Tucket’s Gold (1999)
  • Tucket’s Home (2000)

 Howard Pyle

  • Robin Hood
  • Sir Arthur Legends
  • Men of Iron
  • Otto of the Silver Hand
  • The Wonder Clock
  •  Howard Pyle’s Book of Pirates 

 Arthur Ransome

Swallows and Amazons series

  • Swallows and Amazons (published 1930)
  • Swallowdale (1931)
  • Peter Duck (1932)
  • Winter Holiday (1933)
  • Coot Club (1934)
  • Pigeon Post (1936)
  • We Didn’t Mean To Go To Sea (1937)
  • Secret Water (1939)
  • The Big Six (1940)
  • Missee Lee (1941)
  • The Picts And The Martyrs: or Not Welcome At All (1943)
  • Great Northern? (1947)
  • Coots in the North (1988)

 Wilson Rawls

  • Where the Red Fern Grows

 George Selden

  • The Cricket in Times Square(1960)
  • Tucker’s Countryside (1969)
  • Harry Cat’s Pet Puppy (1974)
  • Chester Cricket’s Pigeon Ride (1981)
  • Chester Cricket’s New Home (1983)
  • Harry Kitten and Tucker Mouse (1986)
  • The Old Meadow (1987)

Ernest T Seton (free for a Kindle)

  • Biography of a Grizzly Bear
  • Lives of the Hunted
  • “Two Little Savages” –Adventures of two boys living as Indians; explaining Indian ways, woodlore, pioneer methods.

Donald Sobol

  • Encyclopedia Brown series

 Elizabeth George Speare

  • Calico Captive (1957)
  • The Witch of Blackbird Pond (1958)
  • The Bronze Bow (1961)
  • The Sign of the Beaver (1983)

William O. Steele

  • Winter Danger 
  • The Far Frontier

Robert Louis Stevenson

  • Treasure Island
  • Kidnapped

J. R.R. Tolkien

  • The Hobbit
  • The Lord of the Rings
  • The Two Towers
  • The Return of the King

 Mark Twain

  • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
  • Huckleberry Finn

 Jules Verne

  • 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
  • In Search of the Castaways
  • Around the World in 80 Days
  • Journey to the Center of the Earth

Gertrude Warner

  • The Boxcar Children (First 19 in the series are by her, the rest are not)

 Ann Weil

  • Red Sails to Capri

E. B. White

  • Charlotte’s Web
  • Stuart Little
  • Trumpet of The Swan

Laura Ingalls Wilder

  • Farmer Boy

Johann David Wyss

  • Swiss Family Robinson

Elizabeth Yates

  • Mountain Born

This is obviously not an exhaustive list…but it is a great start to get boys hooked on living books!