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The Ultimate Booklist for Boys! | themodestmomblog.com

I’ve been asked several times about what I recommend for children to read. Since it’s summer and a perfect time for children to read while school is out, I’ve compiled the ultimate book list for boys! Don’t let the title scare you away if you have girls though, most of these books are perfect for them also. My oldest two are boys, so my experience with proficient readers are boys. 🙂

I’m so blessed to have boys that love to read. They will sit on the couch and read for hours if I let them! We closely monitor their reading list, so this is a pretty conservative book list. On top of this list, we also go to the library and check out huge piles of books (my checkout limit is 200 books and we have come close a few times!). My oldest son absolutely loves anything to do with weather! We come home with stacks of books on tornadoes and hurricanes. I encourage him in that, as he is learning so much on his own time and enjoys it! My 8 year old son loves history, and anything to do with firefighters, police officers and the army. 🙂

For Younger Boys (2-6)

Bible Stories for Early Readers

Bible Stories for Early Readers Series – These are my favorite beginner readers for children. Our 6 year old daughter is reading through them right now. The pictures are wonderful, and really keep the child’s interest to see what happens next. I’m working on collecting the whole set.

Little Jewel books for younger readers

Little Jewel Books by Rod and Staff – When our oldest was a child we had the Lost Milk Jar story almost memorized, he loved it so much! These are sweet little story books with simple illustrations of mennonite families.  These books are best read out loud to young children, they were not written to be readers for young children.

Billy and Blaze Series

Billy and Blaze Series – Oh the memories I have of reading these to my boys! They are really past the age of reading them now, but I think every boy should have these read to them!! A sweet series of books about a boy and his horse.

My First Little House On the Prairie Books

Little House on the Prairie (My First Little House Series) – As you can tell these books are well loved at our house. All of our children like these books, even Deborah (age 2) loves to have these read to her. The perfect way to introduce a classic story to your children. They have a Winter on the Farm story that boys will especially like!

For the Middle Years (7-10)

Dan Frontier Series – This is one of my boys favorite series when they were learning to read. The first book could be read by a 6 year old that was learning how to read, but I think the end of the series is more for a seven year olds level. Every child is different though. These are out of print, but my boys have devoured these books and read them even now! A story about Dan Frontier, and his adventures on the prairie. I found my copies on Amazon, Half.com and Ebay. If you have a son struggling to read, these might be what he needs to encourage him that reading is fun. 🙂

Tales of the RAF series – My boys like this series, but my 8 year old especially likes them. Stories about real RAF Royal Air Force Pilots during World War 2. Full of colorful pictures (which is why I think the younger age will like them a little more).

Child's History of America Series

A Child’s History of America Series – These books are told in one-syllable words, but I wouldn’t give them to an early reader. My boys started reading them after they were pretty solid in reading. They really enjoy them now. The set has books on George Washington, Christopher Columbus, Naval Heroes, and more.

Pocahontas and the Strangers – This is a fiction book that has some history woven into it. It’s an easy read for my boys.

Squanto Friend of the Pilgrims – Our book is well loved and I see them reading it over and over again (especially my 8 year old) so they must really like this book. 🙂

David and Susan at Wild Rose Cottage– Very sweet stories about siblings that have to stay with their grandparents while their father is sick at the hospital. We read this book out loud when the boys were younger. They also have a sequel to this. Published by Rod and Staff.

Tattletale Sparkie and Other Stories – Another sweet story about a family and their everyday life. The books from Rod and Staff do a good job of teaching good character qualities in children.

Cornfield Baby and other Nature Surprises – Another Rod and Staff classic, these are sweet nature stories that teach about God and family.

Don and Joyce discover a hive of busy bees – My oldest son wanted to make sure this made it on the list. I haven’t personally read it, but he really enjoys it. My mom gave this book and it’s sequel to my boys before she passed away so it’s special to me that they like them.

Little House on the Prairie

Little House on the Prairie Series – I have read this series out loud to my children (I still need to finish the last two books for them!). I read these books over and over again when I was a child, and my boys do the same. The rule is that they can’t read one of the books until I have read it out loud, so they still don’t know the end of the story. Major mom failure moment! We need to finish these before school starts.

The Farm Mystery Series – If you are not into mystery books, don’t let the name scare you away. These sweet books are written about a conservative christian family and upholds principles such as parental authority, courtship, siblings getting along, and more. Both of my boys love this set.

The Missionary Adventures of Bob & Arty – This is another series of books that has some excitement to it, but they are written with christian family values. My 10 year old loves to read this series over and over again.

Treasures of the Snow – All the books by Patricia St. John are good for children to read. Excellent books that point children back to the Lord. If you want a good deal on these books here is a Kindle set.

History books that will inspire your boys!

Men of Faith Series – Excellent stories of men who have served the Lord through various ways. They also have a Women of Faith series.

Ten Boys Who Made A Difference – This is a whole set of stories on the lives of famous boys who have impacted the world.

Childhood of Famous Americans – If you have boys who love history, these are a must! I read these books when I was young and I’m excited my boys are enjoying them just as much as I did! Each book goes through the childhood of someone well known, and the last chapter goes through their adult life, highlighting their most famous moments.

Christian Heroes: Then & Now – Stories of missionaries from more modern times to inspire your children!

The Sower Series – Another great history series (yes, my boys love history!). These books will keep your children’s attention as they read about the lives of men and women in history.

Books to help build your son's faith!

Concord Cunningham Series – A unique way to get your boys in their bible! Read through the mystery and find the answer in the bible.

Prudence and the Millers – This whole series is written about the Miller family and their adventures.

Little Pilgrims Progress – A classic story told in a child’s version. The perfect way to introduce this wonderful book to children!

The Moody Series – Summer with The Moodys is the first book in the series, but you will want all of them after your child gets attached to the Moody family! This is a fiction series about a homeschooling family, and my boys can’t get enough of them. They were so happy when a new one came out recently!

Stuart Little – My oldest was literally laughing so hard he had tears in his eyes as he read this book. A funny story about a mouse!

Good books for boys!

Reading to Learn Series – These are used for school with the Christian Light Series, but my boys read these stories over and over again!

Tiger and Tom and Other Stories for Boys – Stories from the late 1800’s reprinted for boys today to learn the same stories boys from 100 years ago needed to learn.

Boyhood and Beyond – This is not a book that my boys read on their own, but we have read it together and I have picked out chapters for them to read on their own for personal devotion time. All the books by Bob Schultz I highly recommend!

Audio Books for Boys

My boys also love listening to stories or books read out loud on CD’s. Here are some of our favorites.

History Cd's for boys

History Stories by William Potter – Now that Vision Forum is no longer around these are harder to find, but my boys really enjoy listening to all of these history stories. I can’t tell you how many facts from history they have told me after listening to these CD’s.

Uncle Rick Audios – Wonderful stories told in a relaxed way, almost as if the child was sitting with Uncle Rick in the same room! I love knowing these are true history stories that are inspiring my boys. They also have proverbs and Psalms on CD that is read out loud while Uncle Rick explains it.

Audio Stories of Women in the Past

The Frontier Adventures of Elinore Stewart – While this story (and the others) might have a woman on the cover, these stories will interest boys and girls! I was even caught up into this story, and sat in the van once we got home from running errands to finish listening to it. 🙂 They also like The Letterbook of Eliza Lucas Pinckney,  A Bride Goes West, An English Family in the American Wilderness, and Abigail Adams: Her Letters.  These stories are on sale through Friday, June 27th! Lovely for lazy summer afternoons when it’s hot outside. 

I hope you enjoyed the list and found something useful on it! I could have added quite a few more books, but had to stop somewhere. 🙂

30 Comments on The Ultimate Book List For Boys!

  1. so glad your kids love to read… my kids did too. still do and now i have my grandsons reading… i grew up with most of those books, nice to see they are still being read. i recently re-read Summer of the Monkeys. nice story about a young boy who sets off to trap a bunch of monkeys escaped from a circus train. what he plans to do with the reward money and what he finally does teaches a lovely lesson on family, obligations and love.

  2. Have you been pleased with the “Farm Mysteries” and the other “Christian” books? After the first in the “Moody” series I haven’t tried many of the independently published books (I found the book to have very poor grammar and syntax; not something I wanted in my children’s heads as good writing). I would really like to try the Concord Cunningham series for them, too. My kids have also enjoyed the Pathway Readers from Rod and Staff.

    • I do agree that the Moody books lack a little when it comes to high quality writing skill, but I know I have very limited options of giving my children godly family role models to read about. So we read classics (like Little House) for examples of good writing. 🙂 I do think the Farm Mysteries are written well.

      • Thanks! Maybe I won’t mind them if they just read them to themselves :)! I would rather read classics and the Bible out loud to them anyway.

      • I’m sorry, but there is no excuse to resort to bad literature! I grew up reading a good many christian books that were good, there is no need to resort to sub-par reading material.

        One of my favourites growing up was a sci-fi series called “The Daystar Voyages” by Gilbert Morris. It’s for a bit older reader, but it is excellent material. And if it’s being read as a family, I don’t see why a younger reader couldn’t enjoy the stories as well. Gilbert Morris’ books in general are a pretty good bet, I’ve enjoyed any of his that I’ve picked up.

        And perhaps I missed it on the list, but C.S. Lewis’ “The Chronicles of Narnia” are classics that should be on any reading list anyway! I read them beginning in fourth or fifth grade and they were wonderful. Aslan sacrificing himself in Edmund’s place is a perfect example of Christ’s love, and it always makes me tear up, no matter how many times I’ve read it. I honestly wish I would have started reading them sooner!

        I hope my comment doesn’t come across as harsh, I’m just a very avid reader and a very passionate proponent of quality reading material. There is so much out there that is available, it just takes a little looking, that’s all! Don’t give up! I hope this is an encouragement to anyone reading that quality material is indeed out there.

        • I second the Narnia series (and other C.S. Lewis books for older teens). Others that I missed include The Bobbsey Twins series for young kids (three, four, five) — they’re great for reading aloud. “The Secret Garden” is good for older kids, and the “Island of the Blue Dolphins” is good for 4th/5th grade. Also, “The Black Stallion” and “Where the Red Fern Grows.” Books don’t have to be specifically Christian in genre to have worthy, powerful, important messages (and also to entertain!). These are books that I read, loved and grew with as a child, and I love that I can share them with my own kids.

  3. Wow thanks for this list! I only have boys and I am trying to encourage my 2nd grader to read on his own. I will be looking for these titles at my library. Right now he likes The Berenstain bears.
    Katie

  4. I saw this post linked in one of my groups and my first thought was that I’d have to wade through it to see if the books were appropriate and something we’d want to read. Then I saw it was you. I just pinned it knowing I can trust your judgement! Thanks for a great list!

  5. I’m going to “pin” this post as soon as I finish this comment. My son (6) isn’t quite into chapter books yet, but I know it won’t be long. And I’m going to need lots of books for him.

    I laughed when I read your comment about getting 200 books. My library limit is fifty books, and we get awfully close sometimes. Both of my children have library cards, too, and we usually get a bunch for my oldest daughter (8). She reads through books so quickly, it’s hard to keep her in books…which it sounds like your boys read.

  6. Thanks for this list! My oldest (a 9-year-old boy) loves to read so I am always looking for new ideas for him. We have a very limited budget right now, though, and most of the books you listed are not available at our library. Do you have some favorite titles you check out from the library?

  7. When your boys get a little older, I hope you introduce them to the G. A. Henty historical novels. They are historically accurate, and the protagonist is what I call ‘every Mother’s dream son.’ For unabridged recordings you can go to my website. Recordings of Henty are fine for 10 year olds and up. I’d wait till any child is 12-13 though before giving them the book to read on their own. The language is complex and vocabulary is high. But we can listen to language above our ability to read and get a lot out of it.

    • I definitely plan to introduce my boys to G.A. Henty! I actually read a few when I was in high school and enjoyed them!

  8. What a great list of books! I have been looking for some great things for our boys to read and this will help me so much. I wanted to suggest some of the Lamplighter audio theatre productions. They are great stories that we love listening to as well. The Hedge of Thorns and The White Gypsy are two of our favorites. They are a little pricey, but professional quality, with great Biblical application.

  9. Great list. I would add these books for middle school/high school boys. The book of Judges, Proverbs, and James all from the Bible. Of course, every child should be encouraged to read the whole Bible, but these three books in particular are full of adventure, advice, and encouragement for a young man to grow in his relationship with God.

  10. I believe that girls who are also interested in history or wars/action stories could also read this, not just boys. My little sister is 8 and loves to read about history, so maybe girls should read some of these just to try them to see if they like them. Sometimes you just need a little break from tales of princesses or long series of books with similar storylines. It’s good to shake it up a little! (:

  11. I think this is a lovely list for little boys! Other than the Little House books, what would you recommend for girls? I prefer to let my boys read boy books and my girls read girl books. They are going to fulfil different roles in their lives, so I need them to be seperated. In fact, my sons wont read Little House because the main characters are female.

    • I need to create a list for girls. I’m not sure I understand your reasoning on not letting your boys read Little House, as there are still a lot of male characters in the books (Pa, Almonzo, Mr. Edwards, etc). I want my boys to to still be able to understand a female perspective as well, and know how women think for when/if they get married. 🙂

    • I know this is an old post but I read this last night and I just can’t get over it! It makes me laugh and wonder. How will you ever read a family read aloud? I mean if the main character has to be a girl for your girls and a boy for your boys? Are your girls only allowed to read portions of scriptures about female characters? I’m not sure if you have read Little House lately or ever but Pa is an extremely main character. Not only is he a great example of a loving leader of his family but they tell about his hunting and farming adventures in detail. How he built their homes and prepared meat for winter in detail. His encounters with wild animals and how he cared for his livestock. The third book Farmer Boy is completly about a boy, Laura’s husband’s childhood. Not only all this but my brother in law read all of them as a child and he fulfills a very manly father/husband leader roll in his home and is now reading them to his family. We also are reading them as a family and my son loves hearing about Pa, the animals and Almonzo, and he never tries to do any girly things afterward. Ha! My husband and I have been married for 14 years and fully believe in our God given separate roles. My husband is my best friend, he is in the ministry working with troubled teen boys, he is an awesome loving husband and father. Thanks to his two sisters he grew up watching Anna of Green Gable’s over and over again. He actually owed it when I met him college and introduced me to it. It hasn’t damaged him at all! most books are not just about a girl or boy, in fact our whole family has listened to Little Women, The Secret Garden and Anne of Green Gables. Do you think my sons and husband want to be girls or do girl things afterward? No they don’t.

      • I hit reply on Kassie’s post but on my phone it appears to go under Caroline’s. So, my ramblings about Little House were based on Cassie’s comment that her boys would not be allowed to read them. Ha!

  12. Nice list, Caroline. I am always looking for lists of books for boys to share. There are a few here that we have not read yet. You did list some of our favorites too, like Billy and Blaze. We read through that series so many times! (pinned :))

  13. Excellent list, thank you so much! I just spent a few hours scouring ebay, amazon, etc to find the books on the list. Our small town library is very limited and having three boys (12, 9, &4) I know we will ‘get our money’s worth’ out of the books I purchase. Thank you, thanks. Also, just a tip: The Scripture Sleuth books are the cheapest on the author’s website AND he will autograph them for free. 🙂

  14. I know this post is old…so any new book recommendations for 13-16 super avid reading boys?
    I’m stuck at this age group??

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