Living Books Explained: How to Find the Best Books for Homeschooling in 2025
This post answers the question “What are living books?” and discusses why we want to use them with our children. It also explains how to go about finding living books: how to recognize when we see them, where to look for them, and what to do if our children want to read something else instead!
I am currently in the middle of sorting out ALL OF OUR HOMESCHOOL BOOKS, and I can’t decide if I love it or hate it. It’s a large massive job but also so satisfying once it’s done, and there’s the added bonus of stumbling upon books I had forgotten we owned.
Sometimes I question the wisdom of owning this many books (generally when I’ve decided to move and/or organize them), but there is great satisfaction in being able to simply walk over to the shelves and pull out a pile of high quality books to go along with whatever topic we are learning about! Books are a foundational part of any homeschool, but especially those inspired by Charlotte Mason.
On this blog we have already discussed three of the most important parts of a Charlotte Mason education, as well as essential tips for using literature in your homeschool. However, one of the most important parts of your homeschool is selecting the books you will use.
What does Charlotte mean by “living books?” Where do we start when looking for them, and how will we know them when we find them?
These are the questions we will answer today. I’m glad you’re here – let’s dive in!
What Are Living Books – and Why Do We Want Them?
Charlotte says,
“One more thing is of vital importance; children must have books, living books. The best is not too good for them; anything less than the best is not good enough. And if it is needful to exercise economy, let go everything that belongs to soft and luxurious living before letting go the duty of supplying the books, and the frequent changes of books, which are necessary for the constant stimulation of the child’s intellectual life.”
Books like these are called “living” because they contain real thoughts and ideas, not merely facts or dates – and ideas never die. This is why the best books achieve a sort of immortality, living on from generation to generation and delighting new readers each year. These books are well-written with rich, compelling language and have the ability to feed the child’s mind and nurture their imagination.
Another way to understand what living books are is by contrasting them with what they are not. Textbooks are not living books, because they are dry and lifeless (who would ever read them for fun?), sucked dry of any original life or vitality by the committee that assembled them.
Living books are usually written by one knowledgeable, passionate author, and – the saving grace of homeschooling! – they tend to be interesting for both children and adults. C. S. Lewis famously said,
“A children’s story which is enjoyed only by children is a bad children’s story. The good ones last. A waltz which you can like only when you are waltzing is a bad waltz.”
If you are not enjoying the books you are reading to your kids, it might be time to find some new ones!
Think about it – if we want our children to truly come to love learning, to keep their natural curiosity alive and well, we must feed their minds with books that show them, repeatedly and irresistibly, that all these subjects are fascinating and interesting!
I remember in college plodding through a textbook on music history, thinking it the dullest subject imaginable (and this as a musician myself!); until a few years later, when I had a different professor who assigned a different book – and suddenly the subject came alive! Part of this had to do with a teacher whose love for the subject was visible and contagious, but a large part of it was due to the book assigned for reading, which – radically – was not a textbook. A living book for the win!
Another way you can spot a living book is by asking yourself, “Could I narrate this to someone else?” It’s very difficult to “tell back” a list of facts or dates. You can find living books that encourage narration in the subject areas of science, history, literature, and even – if you can believe it – math!
How to Spot a Living Book in its Natural Habitat
“None of us can be proof against the influences that proceed from the persons he associates with. Wherefore, in books and men, let us look out for the best society, that which yields a bracing and wholesome influence.” – Charlotte Mason
Imagine you are digging through a dusty bin of children’s books at a garage sale, or perusing the “books for sale” at your local library. You find a book that you think *might* be worth purchasing for your homeschool library, but… how do you know? How can you tell, within one minute or less, if a book is worth taking home with you? Here are four tips to guide you.
Is this book written by a single, knowledgeable author?
Charlotte Mason insisted on “single author books” because she was comparing them to textbooks, which are usually written by a committee – and no one has ever fallen in love with a committee. The point of a book is to connect your child with the mind of the author, and allow them to learn from their expertise. It’s very hard to feel connected with a book written by so many people that not a single personality nor soul is visible in the writing.
EXCEPTION: There are some non-fiction books, written by that dread committee, which I will still buy because they fall under one child’s particular area of interest AND their value lies not in their writing but in the collection of pictures and interesting facts. An example is this DK Smithsonian Human Body Encyclopedia. There’s no telling who the actual author is, but it’s a lovely, informative book that certain of our children have spent hours pouring over. This is not a living book that I would read aloud to our children, but it’s still a valuable reference.
Is the artwork beautiful or engaging?
Charlotte Mason was actually *not* a fan of picture books, and this is one area in which I disagree with her. I think picture books are a fantastic genre, even for older middle school kids. Sarah Mackenzie (from the Read Aloud Revival) calls them “an art gallery for the lap,” and it’s so true! If I find myself flipping through picture books in a stranger’s garage, I will look closely at the artwork and ask myself if it’s something that draws me in – something that is worth looking at again and again?
If the answer is yes, we might have a winner.
If you read a sample, do you want to keep going?
Open the book to the beginning and read the first paragraph. Do you want to keep reading? Granted, there are some worthy books that take several chapters to get the plot moving; however, within the first page or two you should be able to tell a little about the quality of writing, the richness (or lack thereof) of the language, and the style of the story. Is your curiosity sparked? Is the language beautiful?
If you’re still not sure, read a short bit from the middle and the end of the book as well. Please don’t buy a book that you think is horribly dull junk just because “Well, my kid will like it!” I’ve done this before – usually with some poorly written adaptation of a children’s show or movie – and always, always, this book ends up in the trash within a month.
EXCEPTION: Again, if you have child with very intense, specific interests (we do), you might buy them something dull because you know it will interest them. I may or may not have purchased a book containing topographical maps of every country in the world, just for one particular child. No one else will touch the book, but for him it is a veritable gold mine.
The newer the book is, the more carefully you may want to examine it.
This is not to say that all new books are bad (they aren’t) or that we never read new books (we do). It is simply the fact that, the newer the book is, the more likely it is that it will contain something I consider offensive or unhealthy for children.
I’ve seen newer books in the children’s section of our library with sexually suggestive cartoon art, bad language, disrespectful portrayals of parents, and graphically violent descriptions. It’s possible there could be an exception to these, where the quality of the story overrides occasionally offensive material, but in general any new book that contains these things will not be coming home with us.
EXCEPTION: Older books can sometimes have some really awful racial prejudices (think of Pa from Little House on the Prairie saying “the only good Injun is a dead Injun!”), so if you think that may come up in the book, you may want to preview and consider how to handle it before reading aloud to your children.
Where to Look For Living Books
You’ll find books everywhere – at Target, at Costco, at grandma’s house, in your local grocery store, and strewn across paths in the woods. Okay, maybe not the last one. However, not all books are created equal, and some places are better than others when it comes to finding books of a high literary quality. Here are a few of my favorite ways to find great books!
- Your fellow homeschooling friends are perhaps your greatest resources when it comes to book recommendations. Ask them not just for books that their kids loved, but that they loved reading to them!
- Here are a few websites with booklists that I’ve used. Of course, you probably won’t love every single book that a particular publisher or website recommends, but in general I have loved most of these!
- Please note that you do not need to buy any of the curriculum these websites offer (unless you really want to!): just make a note of the books they recommend, jot some down that look interesting, snag them at your local library – and boom! You’ve hacked the system, all for free.
- The library, of course, is a fantastic resource even for finding new books – it just might take some searching (see the four tips listed above) in order to spot a book that will make a good addition to your homeschool. Another trick I will use at the library is to search for other books by an author I have loved, and see what else they’ve written!
Finally, please be encouraged to know that the more you read and the more you search, the better you will get at recognizing a living book when you see one. Practice makes perfect! And, just like our children do, sometimes we learn best by making mistakes – by grabbing a book from the library without flipping through it, or buying a book that turns out to be a dud (been there, done that).
Chalk it up to a learning experience, and know that next time you’ll be a tiny bit wiser.
What if my child wants to read something else – like “twaddle”?
“I am speaking now of [children’s] lesson-books, which are all too apt to be written in a style of insufferable twaddle, probably because they are written by persons who have never chanced to meet a child.” – Charlotte Mason
This is a tricky question. On the one hand, you have Charlotte Mason PURISTS who will not let their children read anything unless it was written at least 200 years ago, no matter what the child’s personal interests might be.
On the other hand, you have mothers who will let their child read any “children’s” book, no matter the quality, and shrug it off with, “Well, at least he’s reading!”
We can probably agree that the correct balance lies somewhere in the middle, but between the two extremes you will find many variations, and you will have to choose for yourself where your family will land.
Here are four thoughts to consider as you choose what to let your children read.
- The season where you can fully curate your child’s reading life is limited. Long before they graduate from high school they will be exposed to many, many different types of books and media. Keep this in mind and work towards teaching your children why we choose certain books over others so they know your reasons and the heart behind it.
- Know your child. Some are more sensitive than others, or more affected by certain themes and ideas. It’s okay to have slightly different guidelines for different children.
- Charlotte Mason compares books (and the ideas contained in them) to food, and it’s a fitting analogy. Sure, it’s fine to have some desserts or candy here and there, but think about what you want the bulk of your child’s intellectual diet to be.
- Classics are classics for a reason AND there are many wonderful books being written today. Both can be true! Don’t dismiss a “classic” on the first read just because some of the old English is a little weird; and don’t be afraid to try that brand-new book that all your homeschool friends were raving about.
Now, for our family, in my mind, there are three categories of books.
Category #1 is a hard no. I won’t let our kids read them, whether because of language, sexually suggestive art (like anime-style), or other inappropriate themes, and if they ask to read them I will explain to the older boys why the answer is no.
Category #2 is books they can check out from the library but I will not buy. These are books that don’t contain anything bad, necessarily, but they also don’t contain anything good. As our kids explore the shelves of the library and look for books they might want to read, there are hundreds of these – books that aren’t offensive except in their complete lack of any worthwhile qualities.
These might not be my favorite books, and they definitely don’t qualify as “living books” or classic literature, but I will let the kids read them for a short time and then return to the library. My hope is that at some point they will tire of these and see by comparison the value of better books. Eventually we want our children also to know what are living books and to curate their own personal library!
Are these types of books “twaddle”? Definitely. However, like a small bit of candy, a small bit of twaddle will not hurt our children.
Category #3 is books that I love – these ones I will buy for our home library. These are books that have either beautiful language, art, stories, or – ideally – all three.
Conclusion
If good books are truly the foundation of our homeschool, we want to be sure that the ones we choose are worth reading. Thankfully, the more you do this, and the more you read with your children, the easier it will become! Everyone will have slightly different tastes when it comes to the books they choose, but I am convinced we will never regret making the effort to choose books of high quality to nourish our child’s heart and mind.
At least, not until we have to re-organize our bookshelves.
“Children are educated by what surrounds them, and we shall be wise to guard against the influence of the commonplace.” – Charlotte Mason
