Students and parents often request lessons on specific books. I am very open to this! I have a lot of experience supporting students with the books listed here. While meeting the needs of my various clients, I’m always adding to this list.

Classics

  • The Giver by Lois Lowry
  • The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
  • The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
  • The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
  • A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
  • A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
  • Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
  • Flatland by Edwin Abbott Abbott
  • Alice and Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
  • Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
  • Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White
  • Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
  • Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
  • Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
  • Emily Dickinson (various works)
  • Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne
  • Grimm’s Fairy Tales / Aesop’s Fables
  • Beowulf
  • Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
  • Hans Christian Andersen (various works)
  • The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
  • Night by Elie Wiesel
  • 1984 by George Orwell
  • Animal Farm by George Orwell
  • Lord of the Flies by William Golding
  • Holes by Louis Sachar
  • Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
  • Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
  • The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
  • Short Stories By Edgar Allen Poe
  • Shakespeare (various works)
  • The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • A Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
  • To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
  • War Horse by Michael Morpurgo
  • Letter to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
  • A Long Walk to Water
  • The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne by Ann Radcliffe
  • Dante’s Inferno by Dante Alighieri
  • Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
  • Treasure Island
  • The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
  • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
  • The Prince and the Pauper
  • Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
  • Isaac Asimov (various works)

Younger Students

  • Magic Tree House Series
  • This Who Is (Who Was) Series
  • Laura Ingalls Wilder

Older Students Interested in Creativity and Psychology

  • How I Built This by Guy Raz
  • Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by Anders Anderson and Robert Pool
  • Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (various books)
  • Howard Gardner (various books)
  • Originals by Adam Grant
  • High Potential by Adam Grant
  • Grit by Angela Duckworth
  • Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
  • Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
  • Mindset by Carol Dweck
  • Range by David Epstein
  • The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
  • Girls Think of Everything: Stories of Ingenious Inventions by
  • Women by Catherine Thimmesh, Melissa Sweet
  • Think Like a Freak by Stephen J. Dubner and Steven Levitt
  • The Gifted Kids Workbook by Heather Boorman (ages 8-12)
  • The Gifted Kids/Teens Survival Guide by by Judy Galbraith and Jim Delisle
  • Visual Thinking by Temple Grandin
  • Living With Intensity by Susan Daniels and Michael M. Piechowski
  • A Brief History of Nearly Everything By Bill Bryson

Documents

Posted in Class Resources, Reading/Writing
Michelle Ptacek in a brown sweater smiles in front of a framed floral picture and globe. Her head is slightly tilted away from camera.
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