Here are our favorites: American History books for high school homeschool.
Our Favorites: American History Books for High School Homeschool
My favorite way to find great American History books for my high school (and me) is to ask my friends. So, just for fun, I asked our 7Sisters Facebook group friends: what are their favorite American History Novels?
Here’s what we came up with for favorite American History Novels.
Here are three things to note before we start:
- The list is not vetted and is geared for various ability readers.
- For planning your homeschool high school Literature courses, check out this post that is part of our Authoritative Guide series.
- A post with favorites American History books for young readers is in this post.
The four American History novels that received a number of recommendations follow:
- Johnny Tremain by Esther Hoskins Forbes (American Revolution)
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (Pre-Civil Rights South)
- 7Sisters has a Literature Study Guide for this favorite book. Click here to view an excerpt from To Kill a Mockingbird Study Guide.
- 7Sisters has a Literature Study Guide for this favorite book. Click here to view an excerpt from To Kill a Mockingbird Study Guide.
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (Immigrant Experience)
- 7Sisters has a Literature Study Guide for this favorite book. Click here to view an excerpt from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Study Guide.
- Christy by Catherine Marshall (Early 20th Century Appalachians)
The following American History books for high school were recommended by many but fewer people than the top four suggestions:
- Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt (Civil War)
- A Free Man of Color by Barbara Hambly (Mystery set in 1830s New Orleans)
- All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque (WWI)
- Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates (Slavery)
- Cold, Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns (Early 20th Century South)
- Corporal Si Klegg and His Pard by Wilbur Hinman (Civil War)
- Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (Antebellum South/Civil War)
- Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (Migrant Workers)
- Hugh Glass by Bruce Bradley (Mountain Man)
- Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (Along the Mississippi)– Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (Mississippi)
- 7Sisters has a Literature Study Guide for Huckleberry Finn. Click here to view an excerpt from this study guide.
- Little Britches by Ralph Moody (The West)
- My Antonia by Willa Cather (The Prairies)
- Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane (Civil War)
- Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski (Backwoods Florida in Early 20th Century)
- The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come by John Fox (Civil War)
- The Education of Little Tree Forrest Carter (Native American during the Great Depression)
- The Girl of Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter (Old Indiana)
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1920’s)
- The Help by Catherine Stockett (Civil Rights Movement)
- The Iron Peacock by Mary Stetson Clarke (Early America)
- The Light in the Forest by Conrad Richter (Early America)
- The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (Civil Rights Era South)
- The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (Backwoods Florida during the Great Depression)
- Unbroken by Lauren Hillenbrand (WWII)
- Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (Slavery)
- Bodie and Brock Thoene’s Shiloh Legacy Series (Great Depression)
- Bodie and Brock Thoene’s Zion Covenant Series (WWII)
- Jeff Shaara’s Series (not really novels but interesting enough to be novels) Rise to Rebellion (American Revolution), To the Last Man (WWI), The Rising Tide (WWII)
- Michael Shaara’s Series: The Killer Angels, Last Full Measure, Gods and Generals (Civil War)
- Louis L’Amour Westerns
These American History novels are valuable because they make history come alive!
Still wondering about the value of books for enhancing your history curriculum? Click here to see what Tarry Lindquist has to say in her article for Scholastic.
Movies are also a great way to enhance your American History curriculum! Click here to read about our favorite history movies.
Speaking of movies, sometimes our homeschool high schoolers need to mix things up a bit. So, we choose a guide from 7Sisters Cinema Studies for Literature Learning to liven up our American History and Literature experiences.
Here are a couple of examples of movies that can double as literature and history!
While you are choosing your American History novels for your homeschool high schoolers, we suggest that you also have them complete some literature study guides.
As you know, 7Sisters study guides are:
- no-busywork,
- don’t-kill-the-book format (with only a few literary concepts addressed in each guide because we want our homeschool high schoolers to like the books).
- levelable to different abilities, interest-levels and goals
Download several 7Sisters’ Literature Study Guides or the entire American Literature bundle for a great literature program for your teens.
For more interesting reading and interactive learning for high schoolers, here is a free Unit Study for Native American Heritage Month.
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Can you tell me please if your lit guides use a Socratic approach to literature? Thank you!
Hi Charlene!
Our guides are designed to help students form good critical thinking skills, to dig below the surface comprehension of the story and think about ideas and applications of ideas. We have not specifically created them to be Socratic dialogues, but they are heavily influenced by Socrates and his questioning model for learning. You can download a free guide for Anne of Green Gables to get a taste of our approach. https://www.7sistershomeschool.com/products-page/freebies/study-guide-for-anne-of-green-gables/
Thank you so much for all of your great resources!! I have a question about this article as I am working on putting together literature for 9th and 10th grade. For the second list of books that had fewer recommendations, are these recommended for high school? For example, Strawberry Girl was supposed to be written for ages 8-12. Can it still be considered a high school book on a transcript?
Thank you again!
Great question, Ann! So much depends on what a student DOES with the book. If the book has rich layers of writing, complex themes, round characters, motif running throughout the story, then while it may be written for 8-12 year olds in terms of basic comprehension (vocabulary, plot design, etc.), there may still be lots MORE for an older reader to explore.
I have not actually read Strawberry Girl myself, so this is not a personal recommendation one way or the other for that book. But I have often assigned a “younger book” to teens and given them study guide materials and assignments that helped them dig deeply into the elements of the book that would be beyond a younger reader’s ability to understand.