We’ve been camped in the Middle Ages for a few months now due to the vast amount of great stories. Just imagine. There are dragon stories, knights and castles, kings and queens, beheadings, peasants, plagues and much more. We can jump into a living book on the middle ages and learn more than any textbook. For our purposes, I consider the middle ages to be after AD 1000 and before AD 1500.
That’s what I love about history. History is merely learning about people… and people are endlessly fascinating. Through picture books, chapter books, encyclopedias, etc. we can learn so much of how people lived in nearly every civilization throughout the history of the world.
Since we definitely learn more when the stories we are engrossed in a story, the book list below includes our living books that are set in the middle ages. They include chapter books, picture books, historical fiction and non-fiction. Enjoy!
How to use Living Books?
We like to have a “spine” that covers our chosen historical period in a chronological fashion. For British history, we’re using Our Island Story by H.E. Marshall. We’ll read the chapter about for the years we’re covering that week and then, to make the time period come alive, we’ll often add in any of the books from this list.
If your children are older (I suggest ages 10 and above), you can assign them to read these books. You can also choose to read any of these aloud to your whole crew. Kids are never too old for read-alouds.
The Middle Ages Living Books
12th Century (1100’s)
Black Fox of Lorne by Marguerite de Angeli (1005 AD)
Viking Adventure by Clyde Robert Bulla (Norway)
Wulf the Saxon by G.A. Henty (1066 AD)
Genghis Kahn: The Brave Warrior Who Bridged East and West (1162-1227 AD) – This beautiful and bilingual(!) book can introduce your children to the silk road and the journey of Genghis Khan.
13th Century (1200’s)
Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray – (England)
The Inquisitor’s Tale: Or, The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog by Adam Gidwitz – (France)
The Mad Wolf’s Daughter by Diane Magras – (a remote Scottish headland)
14th Century (1300’s)
The Book of Boy by Catherine Gilbert – grades 3-7
A Newberry Honor Book
The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli (England)
Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi (England)
15th Century (1400’s)
Joan of Arc by Diane Stanley – nonfiction picture book, grades 2-6
The Making of a Knight by Patrick O’Brien – grades 1-3
Pippo the Fool by Tracey Fern
Marguerite Makes a Book by Bruce Robertson – Bookmaking in Paris
The Ink Garden of Brother Theophane by C.M. Millen – set in a monastery in the mountains of Mourne, Ireland. This colorful book even details how paints were created by using plants surrounding the monastery.
Legends and Medieval Stories
Saint George and the Dragon by Margeret Hodges – This beauty won the Caldecott Award and retells the segment from Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, in which George, the Red Cross Knight, slayed a dragon that had been terrorizing the countryside for years.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Michael Morpurgo – Morpurgo is a masterful storyteller and brings this classic knight’s tale to life. The illustrations by Michael Foreman further ignite everyone’s imaginations.
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