Book List for EP Reading

Phonics – Learn To Read

Sight Reading – Learn To Read

  • McGuffey’s Eclectic Primer, Revised Edition
  • McGuffey’s First Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition

Reading 1

  • The Tale of Jolly Robin, Bailey
  • The Tale of Solomon Owl, Bailey
  • The Tale of Reddy Woodpecker, Bailey
  • The Adventures of Danny Meadow Mouse, Burgess
  • Buster Bear, Burgess
  • Abroad, Crane
  • McGuffey’s Second Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition
  • Beatrix Potter stories
  • a variety of other short stories and poems

Reading 2

  • The Adventures of Jimmy Skunk, Thornton W. Burgess
  • The Adventures of Old Mr. Toad, Thornton W. Burgess
  • The Bobbsey Twins at Snow Lodge, Hope
  • Poetry by Walter De La Mare, James Riley, Christina Rossetti
  • Short stories: Beatrice Potter stories, “Fifty Famous Stories”,
    and a variety of other short stories

Level 3

  • Heidi, Spyri
  • The Bears of Blue River, Major
  • Five Little Peppers and How They Grew, Sidney
  • Poetry by William Blake, Sara Teasdale, Hilda Conkling, Henry
    Wadsworth Longfellow
  • Short stories: Aesop’s Fables (selection), as well as a variety
    of other short stories and plays

Level 4

  • McGuffey’s Third Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition
  • Swiss Family Robinson by Wyss, abridged for EP by Giles
  • The Railway Children, Nesbit
  • The Peterkin Papers, Hale
  • A Little Princess, Burnett
  • The Storybook of Science, Fabre (nonfiction)

Level 5

  • Treasure Seekers, Nesbit
  • Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Carroll
  • Little Men, Alcott
  • Pollyanna, Porter
  • Poems: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf
    Whittier, Christina Rossetti, E. E. Cummings, Paul Dunbar
  • Short Stories: selection of Aesop’s Fables, “Balderdash” by
    Giles, McGuffey’s Eclectic Fourth Reader, Revised Edition, “The Pied Piper of Hamelin”, and short stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Charles Dickens

Level 6

  • The Jungle Book, Kipling
  • Gulliver’s Travels, Swift
  • Penrod, Tarkington
  • Black Beauty, Sewell
  • Jack and Jill, Alcott
  • The Fairy-Land of Science, Buckley
  • Poetry: Carl Sandburg, Robert Frost
  • Short stories: Jim Wolf and the Cats, Twain; How Santa Claus Found the Poor House, Swett; The Time Shop, Bangs; The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras Country, Twain; The Send-and-Fotch Book, Hall; The Sounding of the Call, London; The Million Pound Bank Note, Twain; A Christmas Dream and How It Came True, Alcott

Level 7

  • The Spy, James Fennimore Cooper
  • Penrod and Sam, Tarkington
  • The Call of the Wild, London
  • Treasure Island, Stevenson
  • The Talisman, Sir Walter Scott
  • The King Will Make a Way, Giles
  • Poetry: Emily Dickinson, Keats, Tennyson, Tolstoy, Pushkin, MacDonald, Jennings, Cummings, Teasdale, Blake, Wordsworth, Longfellow, and others

Literature & Composition I

  • historic autobiography of your choosing
  • Pilgrim’s Progress, Bunyan
  • Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Verne
  • Plays: Romeo & Juliet, Shakespeare; The Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde
  • Short stories: “The Gift of the Magi” and “The Ransom of Red Chief”, O’Henry; “The Cask of Amontillado” (partial), Poe; “The Necklace”, Maupassant; other excerpts
  • Poetry: Emily Dickinson and others

Literature & Composition II

  • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Twain
  • Emma, Austen
  • Odyssey, Homer
  • Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare
  • Short stories: “Federigo’s Falcon,” Boccaccio; “The Story of an Hour,” Chopin; “The Interlopers,” Saki; “The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor,” Doyle; “The Hunger Artist,” Kafka
  • Nonfiction:  speeches, news articles from The New York Times, The Washington Times and World magazine; excerpts from each of the following: African Game Trails, Roosevelt; The Way to Rainy Mountain, Momaday; A Thousand Miles Up the Nile, Edwards

American Literature

  • The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne
  • The Red Badge of Courage, Crane
  • My Antonia, Cather
  • To Kill A Mockingbird, Lee
  • Poetry by Bradstreet, Taylor, Bryant, Holmes, Longfellow, Lowell, Poe, Whitman, Dickinson, Harper, Crane, Pound, Frost, Cullen, Stafford, Plath, Wilbur, and Angelou
  • Plays: Trifles, Glaspell
  • various Letters/Essays/Speeches by Wheatley, Edwards, Henry, Lincoln, Cochise, Chief Joseph, Truth, Stanton, Anthony, Hughes, and King
  • Selected Readings by Bradford, Winthrop, Franklin, Paine, Emerson, and Thoreau

British Literature

  • Robinson Crusoe, Defoe
  • The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne, Radcliffe
  • Sense and Sensibility, Austin
  • Hamlet, Shakespeare
  • A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare
  • various poetry
  • Selected Readings from: Beowulf; The Canterbury Tales; Le Morte D’Arthur; Tyndale’s New Testament; Utopia; Paradise Lost; Frankenstein; Ivanhoe; Oliver Twist; Mere Christianity