History for a High School Boy
“Gathering the Storm” by Joel Clarkson
I was asked for a list of good books to read to make studying History much more enjoyable and thorough than a textbook, so I put together this list of books that we have loved and learned the most from.
For American History
Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
Amos Fortune Free Man by Elizabeth Yates
Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Boys’ War by Jim Murphy
World War 1
The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy
Hero Over Here by Kathleen V. Kudlinski
World War 2
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
Year of Impossible Goodbyes by Sook Nyul Choi
The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan
Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen
I also recommend books by G. A. Henty. They are fantastic!
Books about seafaring adventures that the whole family will love:
Books by R. M. Ballantyne are full of adventure, pirates, sailors, storms, intrigue, and being stranded on islands. Rollicking adventures, I guess you could say! The Coral Island is one of his best-known stories. But he wrote over 90 books, so there are many to choose from!
Carry on, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham. I have heard so many people say that they really enjoyed this story. And we did, too!
Horatio Hornblower by C. S. Forester. This is a whole series about a young man who starts out as a seasick midshipman and works his way up to Admiral of the Fleet during the time of the Napoleonic Wars.
These are some of my favorite books to cover American History and some World History. I hope you can find something from this list that will inspire and inform you and your young men.
Happy History Reading!
"Oh that God would give every mother a vision of the glory and splendor of the work that is given to her when a babe is placed in her bosom to be nursed and trained! Could she have but one glimpse in to the future of that life as it reaches on into eternity; could she look into its soul to see its possibilities; could she be made to understand her own personal responsibility for the training of this child, for the development of its life, and for its destiny,--she would see that in all God's world there is no other work so noble and so worthy of her best powers, and she would commit to no other's hands the sacred and holy trust given to her." -JR Miller
