Treasury · Merit

TJEd Youth Recommended

A Thomas Jefferson Education is Oliver and Rachel DeMille's home-education method. It recommends three reading lists by the age of the reader — Early, Youth and Adult — and these are the ones for young readers.

80 books in the catalog stand on this list. The list itself (opens the list's own website) ↗

A reader aged

24 of these books carry no suggested reading age, so choosing an age leaves them out.

• A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain, 1889 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 1020L · AR 9.2 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  Remember
• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, 1885 · ages 12–17 · Lexile 980L · AR 6.6 · AR Interest: MG+ (6–8)
  also on Deep Roots Grade, St. John's College
  Remember
• Alice's Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, 1865 · ages 11–13 · Lexile 880L · AR 7.4 · AR Interest: MG (4–8)
  also on Davidson Gifted, Halsted - Best Friends, Mensa Kids
  Remember
• Animal Farm by George Orwell, 1945 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 1090L · AR 7.3 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  also on Mensa Kids, Time Magazine 1923-2005
  Remember
• Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery, 1935 · ages 9–12 · Lexile 710L · AR 7.3 · AR Interest: MG (4–8)
  also on Davidson Gifted, Deep Roots Grade, Halsted - Best Friends, Mensa Kids, The Good & The Beautiful
  Remember
• Asimov on Numbers by Isaac Asimov, 1978
  Remember
• Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin, 1791 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 1370L · AR 11.8 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  also on Harvard Classics, Mensa Kids
  Remember
• Battle Hymn of the Republic by Julia Ward Howe, 1861
  Remember
• Ben Hur by Lew Wallace, 1880 · ages 11–14 · Lexile 990L · AR 9.1
  also on Deep Roots Grade
  Remember
• Black Beauty by Anna Sewell, 1877 · ages 8–12 · Lexile 1010L · AR 7.7 · AR Interest: MG (4–8)
  also on Beautiful Feet, Davidson Gifted, Deep Roots Grade, Mensa Kids, The Good & The Beautiful
  Remember
• Black Stallion by Walter Farley, 1941 · ages 11–13 · Lexile 680L · AR 5.2 · AR Interest: MG (4–8)
  also on Beautiful Feet, Davidson Gifted, Mensa Kids
  Remember
• David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, 1850 · ages 12–15 · Lexile 1070L · AR 9.5
  also on Deep Roots Grade, Harvard Classics
  Remember
• Diary of A Young Girl by Anne Frank, 1952 · ages 10–17 · Lexile 1020L · AR 6.5 · AR Interest: MG+ (6–8)
  also on Deep Roots Grade, Mensa Kids
  Remember
• Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting, 1920 · ages 8–10 · Lexile 930L · AR 5.1 · AR Interest: MG (4–8)
  Remember
• Don Quixote, Part 1 by Miguel Cervantes, 1612 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 1410L · AR 13.2 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  also on Davidson Gifted, Harvard Classics, Mensa Kids, St. John's College
  Remember
• Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams, 1964
  Remember
• Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott, 1875 · ages 9–14 · Lexile 1150L · AR 8.2 · AR Interest: MG (4–8)
  also on The Good & The Beautiful
  Remember
• Etiquette by Emily Post, 1969
  Remember
• Flatland by Edwin Abbott, 1884 · Lexile 1280L
  Remember
• Foundation by Isaac Asimov, 1991 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 830L · AR 6.4 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  Remember
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, 1818 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 560L · AR 12.4 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  also on Mensa Kids
  Remember
• Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, 1726 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 1370L · AR 13.5 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  also on Davidson Gifted, Deep Roots Grade, Mensa Kids, St. John's College
  Remember
• Hamlet by William Shakespeare, 1603 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 650L · AR 10.5 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  also on Harvard Classics, Mensa Kids, St. John's College
  Remember
• Heidi by Joanna Spyri, 1880 · ages 9–14 · Lexile 1200L · AR 8.2 · AR Interest: MG (4–8)
  also on Deep Roots Grade, Mensa Kids, The Good & The Beautiful
  Remember
• History Reborn by Vicki Jo Anderson, 1994
  Remember
• In Flanders Fields by John McCrae, 1915
  Remember
• Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell, 1960 · ages 10–12 · Lexile 1000L · AR 5.4 · AR Interest: MG (4–8)
  also on Halsted - Best Friends, Mensa Kids, Newbery Award, The Good & The Beautiful
  Remember
• Ivanhoe by Walter Scott, 1819 · Lexile 1410L · AR 12.9
  also on Mensa Kids
  Remember
• Joan of Arc by Mark Twain, 1896 · ages 12–15 · Lexile 720L
  Remember
• Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne, 1864 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 1030L · AR 9.9 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  also on Davidson Gifted
  Remember
• Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, 1599 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 980L · AR 10.8 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  Remember
• King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green, 1953 · ages 9–14 · Lexile 1130L · AR 7.7 · AR Interest: MG (4–8)
  also on Beautiful Feet
  Remember
• Laddie by Gene Stratton-Porter, 1913
  Remember
• Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes, 2004 · AR 3.5
  Remember
• Little Britches by Ralph Moody, 1991 · ages 9–14 · Lexile 600L · AR 5.3 · AR Interest: MG (4–8)
  Remember
• Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett, 1886 · ages 9–14 · Lexile 1070L · AR 8.1 · AR Interest: MG (4–8)
  also on Deep Roots Grade, The Good & The Beautiful
  Remember
• Little Men by Louisa May Alcott, 1871 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 1150L · AR 8.1 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  also on The Good & The Beautiful
  Remember
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, 1868 · ages 9–14 · Lexile 1300L · AR 7.9 · AR Interest: MG (4–8)
  also on Davidson Gifted, Deep Roots Grade, Mensa Kids, The Good & The Beautiful
  Remember
• Lonesome Gods by Louis L'Amour, 1983 · ages 14–18 · AR 4.6 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  Remember
• Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, 1973 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 860L · AR 6.1
  also on Davidson Gifted, Mensa Kids, Time Magazine 1923-2005
  Remember
• Mathematicians Are People, Too by Luetta Reimer, 1990
  Remember
• Moby Dick by Herman Melville, 1851 · ages 15–18 · Lexile 1150L · AR 10.3
  also on Deep Roots Grade, Mensa Kids
  Remember
• Mythology by Edith Hamilton, 1953 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 1040L · AR 8.2 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  Remember
• Narrative on the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, 1845 · ages 15–18 · Lexile 920L
  also on Beautiful Feet, Halsted - Best Friends, Mensa Kids
  Remember
• National Velvet by Enid Bagnold, 1953 · ages 11–13 · Lexile 700L · AR 5.5 · AR Interest: MG (4–8)
  also on Mensa Kids
  Remember
• North to Freedom by Anne Holm, 1963 · ages 11–13 · Lexile 890L · AR 5.6 · AR Interest: MG (4–8)
  Remember
• O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman, 1865
  Remember
• Old Ironsides by Oliver Wendell Holmes, 2012
  Remember
• Old Yeller by Fred Gipson, 1964 · ages 10–12 · Lexile 910L · AR 5.0 · AR Interest: MG (4–8)
  also on Deep Roots Grade
  Remember
• Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, 1838 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 1230L · AR 11.3 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  also on Deep Roots Grade
  Remember
• Robinson Crusoe by Daniel DeFoe, 1719 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 920L · AR 5.8 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  also on Deep Roots Grade, Mensa Kids, TJEd Adult Recommended
  Remember
• Sackett's Land by Louis L'Amour, 1974 · Lexile 910L · AR 5.4
  Remember
• Sonnets by William Shakespeare, 1609 · ages 14–17
  Remember
• Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers by Patrick Kavanaugh, 1992
  also on Beautiful Feet
  Remember
• Stuart Little by E.B. White, 1945 · ages 9–10 · Lexile 920L · AR 6.0
  also on Davidson Gifted, Deep Roots Grade
  Remember
• Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls, 1976 · ages 11–13 · Lexile 810L · AR 4.8 · AR Interest: MG (4–8)
  also on The Good & The Beautiful
  Remember
• Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss, 1812 · ages 9–14 · Lexile 1210L · AR 8.1 · AR Interest: MG (4–8)
  also on Deep Roots Grade, Mensa Kids, The Good & The Beautiful
  Remember
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, 1876 · ages 11–14 · Lexile 970L · AR 8.1 · AR Interest: MG+ (6–8)
  also on Mensa Kids
  Remember
• The Concord Hymn by Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1996
  Remember
• The Great Brain by John D. Fitzgerald, 1967 · ages 8–10 · Lexile 840L · AR 5.2 · AR Interest: MG (4–8)
  Remember
• The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom, 1971 · ages 11–13 · Lexile 900L · AR 6.4 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  also on Beautiful Feet, Deep Roots Grade, The Good & The Beautiful
  Remember
• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, 1937 · ages 12–17 · Lexile 1000L · AR 6.6 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  also on Mensa Kids, NY Public Library
  Remember
• The Holy Bible by multiple, 1611
  also on St. John's College, TJEd Adult Recommended, TJEd Early Recommended
  Remember
• The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, 1893 · ages 9–13 · Lexile 1050L · AR 5.8 · AR Interest: MG (4–8)
  also on Mensa Kids
  Remember
• The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, 1826 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 1230L · AR 12.0 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  also on Mensa Kids
  Remember
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, 1950 · ages 8–13 · Lexile 940L · AR 5.7
  also on Davidson Gifted, Deep Roots Grade, Mensa Kids, NY Public Library, The Good & The Beautiful, Time Magazine 1923-2005
  Remember
• The Man with the Hoe by Edwin Markham, 1898
  Remember
• The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, 1961 · ages 10–13 · Lexile 1000L · AR 6.7 · AR Interest: MG (4–8)
  also on Davidson Gifted, Halsted - Best Friends, NY Public Library
  Remember
• The Present Crisis by James Russell Lowell, 1885
  Remember
• The Real Benjamin Franklin by Andrew M. Allison, 1982
  Remember
• The Real George Washington by Jay A. Parry, 1991
  Remember
• The Real Thomas Jefferson by Andrew M. Allison, 1982
  Remember
• The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, 1916
  Remember
• The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas, 1942
  also on Deep Roots Grade
  Remember
• The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, 1911 · ages 11–13 · Lexile 710L · AR 6.3 · AR Interest: MG (4–8)
  also on Davidson Gifted, Deep Roots Grade, Mensa Kids
  Remember
• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, 1886 · ages 15–18 · Lexile 1010L · AR 9.4
  Remember
• The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White, 1970 · ages 8–10 · Lexile 750L · AR 4.9 · AR Interest: MG (4–8)
  also on Davidson Gifted, The Good & The Beautiful
  Remember
• Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, 1882 · ages 9–14 · Lexile 1070L · AR 8.3 · AR Interest: MG (4–8)
  also on Deep Roots Grade, Mensa Kids, The Good & The Beautiful
  Remember
• Where the Red Fern Grows by Woodrow Wilson Rawls, 1974 · age 11 · Lexile 700L · AR 4.9 · AR Interest: MG (4–8)
  also on Deep Roots Grade, Mensa Kids
  Remember
• White Fang by Jack London, 1964 · ages 12–17 · Lexile 650L · AR 7.4 · AR Interest: MG (4–8)
  Remember