World History Books and Curricula
When homeschooling my kids, I taught history chronologically and often used real books. Over the years, I accumulated a number of titles. Below I've highlighted some items in my collection.
Reading the Little House in the Prairie books at an early age caused me to fall in love with history. Then as a homeschool mom, I made history a predominant subject, and I collected many history resources over the years.
For this post, I will focus on world history. Next time, I’ll cover American history.
World History Curriculum
Biblioplan For Families: Ancient History
I only own the first year, 2005 edition of this multilevel program, which I used when my son was in the first grade. This curriculum, inspired by the Well-Trained Mind, has changed over the years. See Biblioplan for more information.
Weeks 1–16 cover biblical history, followed by units on Greece, Rome, and the Far East (China, Japan, and India). Even though the curriculum teaches from a biblical worldview, it draws from several secular history books.
Mystery of History, a Classical Approach
This biblical worldview curriculum follows the standard four divisions of chronological history: Ancient (which I do not own), Middle Ages, Renaissance & Reformation, and the Modern period. For more details, see the Mystery of History website.
Mystery of History Vol. 2: The Early Church and the Middle Ages (6th-grade reading level). This text includes the Companion Guide with quizzes and activities.
Mystery of History Vol. 3: The Renaissance, Reformation, and Growth of Nations (8th-grade reading level).
Mystery of History Vol. 3: The Renaissance, Reformation, and Growth of Nations Companion Guide: Curriculum and Student Activities.
Mystery of History Vol. 4: Wars of Independence to Modern Times Student Reader (9th-grade reading level). The Companion Guide was published in digital format.
Greenleaf Guides to History
This biblical worldview, multilevel unit-study history curriculum focuses on biographies from the Famous Men series. The books on Greece and Rome were originally written in 1904, and Rob Shearer wrote in a similar style the Middle Ages and Renaissance texts. The Old Testament (which I don’t own) and Egypt guides draw from various books.
The Greenleaf Guides provide comprehension questions, activities, vocabulary, and a list of people and places. This curriculum doesn’t provide structured lesson plans like the ones above.
Famous Men of Greece and the Greenleaf Guide with time chart
Famous Men of Rome and the Greenleaf Guide with time chart
Famous Men of the Renaissance & Reformation and the Greenleaf Guide
Sonlight: Major Non-Western Cultures (2002)
Sonlight is a literature-based curriculum, which combines Bible, literature, and history, that teaches from a Christian worldview but also embraces the importance of teaching children about other worldviews. Both of my children worked through this Eastern Hemisphere curriculum at separate times, and I bought some of the updated materials for when my daughter used it. The curriculum exposes your children to the major world religions, and you can use the teacher’s notes to discuss these ideas from a biblical point of view.
Stand-Alone History Books
Books About Books
Let the Authors Speak: A Guide to Worthy Books Based on Historical Setting
This helpful guide organizes book titles, fiction and nonfiction including biographies, by historical setting from ancient Egypt through the 20th century. Although it lists a few books at the 8- to 12-year-old reading level, most are for more advanced readers. However, some are suitable for read-alouds. The book’s introduction provides thoughts on reading and history from a Charlotte Mason perspective.
All Through the Ages: History through Literature Guide
I extensively used this resource as it summarizes historical periods and lists books by narrow categories. In addition to traditional time period lists, this resource categorizes books by geographical location, not only titles from Western nations but also from Asia, the Middle East, and South America. It even has a book list on science and mathematics and another on art history.
History Overviews
The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History
The Well-Trained Mind recommended this text as a curriculum spine. The first one hundred pages cover prehistoric history, which I thought was too much, mainly because this subject is speculative and contrary to my biblical, young-earth view. But we enjoyed the illustrations and bite-sized information covering the other eras of history. Elementary students.
Encyclopedia of World History
This text follows a similar format as the one above but without the extensive prehistory. The timeline running along the base of each page is more informative than the one in the Usborne book.
A Child’s History of the World by Virgil M. Hillyer of the Calvert School.
Although we didn’t use this text, it appears in homeschool listings. The author writes in a personal manner, addressing an elementary child directly. Ages 7-12.
A Street Through Time
This beautifully illustrated book shows a prehistoric village morphing into a modern-day city as you turn the pages.
The Annals of the World by Archbishop James Ussher.
I recently acquired this classic work. One of these days, I need to sit down with this text. Adult level.
Ancient
World History Made Simple: Matching History with the Bible
This short book by homeschool author Ruth Beechick helps readers, teens or parents, to weave ancient history with biblical history.
Unwrapping the Pharaohs: How Egyptian Archaeology Confirms the Biblical Timeline
The author demonstrates that an alternate timeline for Egyptian history makes it fit better with biblical and other ancient Middle East civilization histories than the traditional timeline. A fascinating book for teens and adults, or you can read sections to younger children.
Time Traveller’s Omnibus: “Pharaohs and Pyramids,” “Rome and Romans,” “Knights and Castles,” “Viking Raiders.”
This collection of four Usborne books in one volume is a fun introduction to different historical civilizations for young readers.
Ancient Greece (Cultural Atlas for Young People)
This beautifully illustrated book is not only full of maps but photos of artifacts and short articles. Upper elementary.
Augustus Caesar’s World: A Story of Ideas and Events from 44 BC to AD 14
Originally published in 1947, this and other books by Genevieve Foster remain popular among homeschoolers. Her storytelling style appeals to elementary children and even teens.
To move beyond the Big Three ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece, and Rome, I sought out other resources for children. Few exist, but I found some.
Ancient Israelites and Their Neighbors: An Activity Guide
This one describes the Philistines, Phoenicians, and Israelites, ancient cultures not often covered in a world history curriculum. Each book in this series provides short history readings with accompanying activities and is an excellent supplementary resource to any ancient history curriculum. Upper elementary.
Growing Up In Ancient China
The Growing Up picture book series supplies young children with an overview of life in ancient cultures. I also have this series’s Egypt, Aztec, Greece, and Rome titles. Ages 9 to 10.
The Great Wall of China picture book.
Church History
Trial and Triumph: Stories from Church History
Mini biographies from Polycarp to C. S. Lewis written for elementary students.
Medieval
What Really Happened During The Middle Ages: A Collection of Historical Biographies
This book contains eight inspiring biographical stories, including Eleanor of Aquitaine and Joan of Arc.
The Middle Ages (Cultural Atlas for Young People) Upper elementary.
The Vikings (Peoples of the Past). A picture book for ages 9 to 12.
The Big Golden Book of Knights and Castles. Picture book.
The Arabs in the Golden Age. Upper elementary.
The Mongols. Upper elementary.
Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)
This adult-level book offers an enlightening perspective on the crusades. It can help parents combat the woke narrative in our culture.
Renaissance, Reformation, and Exploration
The Renaissance
A picture book for primary students that surveys life during the Renaissance.
Rats, Bulls & Flying Machines: A History of the Renaissance & Reformation
We immensely enjoyed working through this mini-study curriculum and teacher’s guide from the Core Knowledge Foundation (not to be confused with Common Core) designed for grade 5.
The World of Columbus and Sons by Genevieve Foster.
Courage and Conviction: Chronicles of the Reformation Church
A wonderful collection of short Christian biographies for elementary students.
Modern
While writing this post, I discovered that I only have two history titles for children for this time period. Western history tends to shift to American history at this point in time until the twentieth century.
Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun
Sonlight includes this text in the Eastern Hemisphere curriculum. It describes how America opened Japan up to the world through diplomacy. Ages 8 to 12.
Usborne’s The World Wars
Also a Sonlight recommended text. Ages 9 to 12.
For children, I have numerous biographies and historical fiction titles set in the 18th through the 20th centuries. For example,
18th Century
Catherine the Great, children’s biography
Frederick the Great, children’s biography
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
19th Century
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. Middle school reading level.
Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne. Middle school reading level.
What Liberates a Woman? The Story of Pandita Ramabai, A Builder of Modern India
A fascinating story about an Indian woman who left Hinduism to follow Christ as a young adult. She helped abandoned widows in India. Adult level.
20th Century
Gandhi: Peaceful Warrior (Easy Biographies). Ages 9 to 10.
The Fall of the Red Star
This excellent historical novel tells the story of 14-year-old Stephen, who joins the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. It loosely describes the family experience of author Helen M. Szablya. My friend Peggy King Anderson helped this immigrant write the story that gives the reader a look behind the Iron Curtain (Eastern European countries that fell under communist control after World War II). Grades 4 to 8.
Teen/Adult Reading Level
Historical Atlas of the 19th Century World 1783–1914
Historical Atlas of the 20th Century 1900-1999
Although I listed these in my geography post, I will reference them here as well. More than atlases, these offer articles on historical topics as well.
The Fatal Impact
A 1966 book on Captain Cook. Belonged to my dad.
Kings in Grass Castles
Story of cattle ranchers in Australia in the 1800s.
Questions on German History
I picked up this book at the Bundestag museum during my college trip to Berlin in 1987. In English, this text tells the history of Germany from 1789 through the 20th century.
College Texts
I minored in Political Science and kept these history texts that may be of interest.
Western Europe 1987
Soviet Union and Eastern Europe 1987
These annually published textbooks cover brief histories of nations.
A Brief History of Chinese and Japanese Civilizations
The reading list for my Revolution in History course.