A Library to Build Great Americans

468 clickable book recommendations in the Western canon, split into three age bands — 3-7, 8-12 and 13-99+ — with genre, Lexile level and a description for each.

Why this page exists. Kyle asked whether the whole list could be scraped rather than left as a link. It could, and it is here in full. The roster is the artefact; the essay around it is short. The source is one person’s paid-newsletter product and the links are Bookshop.org affiliate links, so this page is publish: false and stays that way.

Provenance and completeness

Published 2025-12-14 on the Educated and Free Substack by “Dissident Teacher” (@educatedandfree), announced on X the following day in It Is Done Here Are… (tweet). The post itself is 1,387 words and — contrary to expectation — is not paywalled: the Substack post API reports audience: everyone, and the full body_html came back on the first request.

The catch was that the booklists are not in the post’s HTML at all. They are three embedded Datawrapper tables, which is why the post reads as mostly preamble. Pulling the lists meant reading the iframe sources out of body_html and fetching each table’s underlying dataset directly:

Age band	Datawrapper table	Titles	Archived as
Ages 3-7	KA54A/3	148	booklist-ages-3-7-datawrapper-KA54A.tsv
Ages 8-12	jMX6Z/5	146	booklist-ages-8-12-datawrapper-jMX6Z.tsv
Ages 13-99+	dzDQA/6	174	booklist-ages-13-99-datawrapper-dzDQA.csv
		468

Everything is in wiki/attachments/a-library-to-build-great-americans-ages-3-99/: the three datasets (author, title, genre, Lexile level, full description and the original affiliate link for every entry) plus post-text.md, the essay’s own text. The rosters below list author, title, genre and Lexile only — the descriptions and the affiliate links stay in the archived datasets rather than being reproduced here.

468 titles, which matches the post’s own “over 400 books.” Nothing was sampled or truncated.

What the author says about the lists

The framing is Benjamin Franklin’s subscription library: “Franklin did not invent the lending library — he invented the free market version of it.” The three bands are meant to be chosen by reader rather than by age alone, and the author is explicit about Lexile: below 800 for young readers, 700-1100 for mid-range, 1000+ for experienced ones.

On the 3-7 list, picture books are for reading aloud and chapter books are “where the rubber meets the road” — the argument being that younger children follow a story across sessions better than adults expect, and that reading aloud while a child draws or eats still counts.

The 13-99+ list is the one the author flags as hardest: “This list, more than any other, is the one you’ll have to work up to. It takes no prisoners.”

And the closing note, which is the honest part and the reason this is worth keeping as a corpus rather than as a link: “Lists like these exist all over the internet. I’m not sure people read many books based on them. I know that because sometimes I buy books fully intending to read them, but am satisfied enough by having them that I don’t open them.”

The list

Booklists for Ages 3-7

148 titles. Source table: Datawrapper KA54A/3; archived as booklist-ages-3-7-datawrapper-KA54A.tsv. The Type column distinguishes picture books (PIC), chapter books (CH) and anthologies (ANTH).

Biography

• Baldwin, James — 50 Famous People · Anthology (stories)
• Capaldi, Gina — A Boy Called Beckoning · Picture book
• d’Aulaire, Ingri — Columbus · Picture book
• d’Aulaire, Ingri — Leif the Lucky · Picture book
• Hopkins, Andrea — Harald the Ruthless · Picture book
• Pollard, Josephine — The Life of George Washington · Picture book
• Kingsley, Charles — Westward, Ho! · Chapter book
• Kingsley, Charles — Hereward: the Last of the English · Chapter book
• Yonge, Charlotte Mary — The Little Duke · Chapter book

Classic Literature

• Alger, Horatio — The Collected Complete Works of Horatio Alger, Jr. · Chapter book
• Appleton, Victor — The Adventures of Tom Swift, Volume I · Chapter book
• Appleton, Victor — The Adventures of Tom Swift, Volume II · Chapter book
• Atwater, Richard — Mr. Popper’s Penguins · Chapter book
• Bailey, Arthur Scott — The Tale of Jolly Robin · Chapter book
• Bailey, Arthur Scott — The Tale of Solomon Owl · Chapter book
• Bailey, Arthur Scott — The Tale of Pony Twinkleheels · Chapter book
• Burnett, Frances Hodgson — The Secret Garden; A Little Princess; Little Lord Fauntleroy · Chapter book
• Collodi, Carlo — Pinnochio · Chapter book
• Dalgliesh, Alice — The Courage of Sarah Nobel · Chapter book
• Dodge, Mary Mapes — Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates · Chapter book
• Farley, Walter — The Black Stallion · Chapter book
• Gilbreth, Frank B. — Cheaper by the Dozen · Chapter book
• Grahame, Kenneth — Wind in the Willows · Chapter book
• Hope, Laura Lee — The Bobbsey Twins: On a Houseboat · Chapter book
• Hope, Laura Lee — The Bobbsey Twins: At Snow Lodge · Chapter book
• Lenski, Lois — Strawberry Girl · Chapter book
• Lovelace, Maud Hart — Betsy-Tacy: Best Friends Forever · Chapter book
• McLachlan, Patricia — Sarah, Plain and Tall · Chapter book
• Porter, Eleanor — Pollyanna · Chapter book
• Sewell, Anna — Black Beauty · Chapter book
• Sidney, Margaret — Five Little Peppers · Chapter book
• Spyri, Johanna — Heidi · Chapter book
• Stevenson, Robert Louis — Treasure Island · Chapter book
• Stratton-Porter, Gene — Laddie · Chapter book
• White, E.B. — Charlotte’s Web · Chapter book
• White, E.B. — Stuart Little · Chapter book
• White, E.B. — Trumpet of the Swan · Chapter book
• Wilder, Laura Ingalls — Little House in the Big Woods · Chapter book
• Wilder, Laura Ingalls — Little House on the Prairie · Chapter book
• Wilder, Laura Ingalls — Farmer Boy · Chapter book
• Wilder, Laura Ingalls — [On the Banks of Plum Creek](https://bookshop.org/a/120542/9780060581831 · Chapter book
• Wilder, Laura Ingalls — By the Shores of Silver Lake · Chapter book
• Wilder, Laura Ingalls — The Long Winter · Chapter book
• Wilder, Laura Ingalls — Little Town on the Prairie · Chapter book
• Wilder, Laura Ingalls — These Happy Golden Years · Chapter book
• Stratemeyer, Edward — Rover Boys at School · Chapter book
• Stratemeyer, Edward — Rover Boys in the Jungle · Chapter book
• Stratemeyer, Edward — Rover Boys On the Ocean · Chapter book
• Wyss, Johann David — Swiss Family Robinson · Chapter book

Classics

• Bemelmans, Ludwig — A Madeline Treasury: The Original Stories · Anthology (stories)
• Bennett, William — The Children’s Book of Virtues · Anthology (stories and poetry)
• Bond, Michael — The Paddington Treasury · Anthology (stories)
• Herriott, James — James Herriot’s Treasury for Children: Warm and Joyful Tales · Anthology (stories)
• Kipling, Rudyard — Just So Stories · Anthology (stories)
• Kipling, Rudyard — The Jungle Book · Anthology (stories)
• Milne, A.A. — The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh · Anthology (stories and poetry)
• Potter, Beatrix — Beatrix Potter: The Complete Tales · Anthology (stories)

Fables

• Winter, Milo — Aesop for Children · Anthology (stories)

Fairy Tale

• Thurber, James — The Thirteen Clocks · Chapter book

Fairy Tales

• Andersen, Hans Christian — The Complete Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales · Anthology (stories)
• Grimm, Jacob — Grimm’s Fairy Tales · Anthology (stories)
• Grimm, Jacob — Household Stories · Anthology (stories)
• Grimm, Jacob — The Grimm Reader · Anthology (stories)
• Lang, Andrew — The Red Fairy Book · Anthology (stories)
• Lang, Andrew — The Blue Fairy Book · Anthology (stories)
• Lang, Andrew — The Green Fairy Book · Anthology (stories)
• Lang, Andrew — The Yellow Fairy Book · Anthology (stories)
• Perrault, Charles — Perrault’s Complete Fairy Tales · Anthology (stories)
• Stephens, James — Irish Fairy Tales · Anthology (stories)

Fantasy

• Hodges, Margaret — Saint George and the Dragon · Picture book
• Kingsley, Charles — Water Babies · Picture book
• Pyle, Howard — King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table · Picture book
• Ruskin, John — King of the Golden River · Picture book
• Alexander, Lloyd — Book of Three · Chapter book
• Avi — Perloo the Bold · Chapter book
• Baum, L. Frank — The Wonderful Wizard of Oz · Chapter book
• Bulla, Clyde Robert — Sword in the Tree · Chapter book
• Carroll, Lewis — Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass · Chapter book
• Dahl, Roald — The BFG · Chapter book
• Dahl, Roald — Fantastic Mr. Fox · Chapter book
• DiCamilo, Kate — The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread · Chapter book
• Gaiman, Neil — Odd and the Frost Giants · Chapter book
• Lewis, C.S. — The Chronicles of Narnia · Chapter book
• McDonald, George — Princess and the Goblin · Chapter book
• Pyle, Howard — Otto of the Silver Hand · Chapter book
• Todd-Stanton, Joe — Arthur and the Golden Rope · Chapter book

Folk Tales

• Bowman, James — Pecos Bill: The Greatest Cowboy of All Time · Chapter book

Folktales

• Baldwin, James — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · Anthology (stories)
• D’aulaire, Ingri — d’Aulaire’s Book of Animals · Anthology (stories)
• D’aulaire, Ingri — d’Aulaire’s Book of Norwegian Folktales · Anthology (stories)
• Hamilton, Virginia — The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales · Anthology (stories)
• Harris, Joel Chandler — Uncle Remus Stories · Anthology (stories)
• Lang, Edward — Arabian Nights · Anthology (stories)
• Hall, Jennie — Viking Tales · Picture book
• Malaspina, Ann — Hunting of the Great Bear · Picture book
• Marpurgo, Michael — Beowulf · Chapter book
• Milligan, Bryce — The Prince of Ireland and the Three Magic Stallions · Chapter book

History

• Hilyer, V.M. — A Child’s History of the World · Anthology
• McSwigan, Marie — Snow Treasure · Chapter book

Holiday

• Brett, Jan — Christmas Treasury · Picture book
• Brett, Jan — Who’s That Knocking on Christmas Eve? · Picture book
• Moore, Clement Clarke — The Night Before Christmas · Picture book

Integrated

• HIrsch, E.D. — What Your Preschooler Needs to Know · Anthology
• Hirsch, E.D. — What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know · Anthology
• Hirsch, E.D. — What Your 1st Grader Needs to Know · Anthology
• Hirsch, E.D. — What Your 2nd Grader Needs to Know · Anthology

Mythology

• D’aulaire, Ingri — d’Aulaire’s Book of Norse Myths · Anthology (stories)
• D’aulaire, Ingri — d’Aulaire’s Book of Trolls · Anthology (stories)
• D’aulaire, Ingri — d’Aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths · Anthology (stories)
• Verniero, Joan C. — Celtic Myths and Legends · Anthology (stories)

Nonfiction

• Milbourne, Anna — Usborne Beginners Nature Collection · Anthology
• Maclaine, James — Usborne Beginners Animals Collection · Anthology
• Bone, Emily — Usborne Beginners Science Collection · Anthology
• Bone, Emily — Usborne Beginners History Collection · Anthology
• Bone, Emily — Usborne Beginners Our World Collection · Anthology

Poetry

• Belloc, Hilaire — Cautionary Verses · Anthology (poetry)
• Lear, Edward — The Complete Book of Nonsense · Anthology (poetry)
• Stevenson, Robert Louis — A Child’s Garden of Verses · Anthology (poetry)
• Wright, Blanche Fisher — The Real Mother Goose · Anthology (poetry)
• Greenaway, Kate — The Language of Flowers · Picture book
• Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth — The Song of Hiawatha · Picture book

Science

• Burgess, Thornton W. — The Burgess Animal Book for Children · Anthology (stories)

Science Fiction

• Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan — The Lost World · Chapter book
• Gaiman, Neil — Fortunately, the Milk · Chapter book

Traditional Tales

• Asbjornsen, P.C. — The Three Billy Goats Gruff · Picture book
• Barnett, Mac — Extra Yarn · Picture book
• Brown, Marcia — Stone Soup · Picture book
• Burton, Virginia Lee — Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel · Picture book
• de Saint-Exupéry, Antoine — The Little Prince · Picture book
• de Brunhoff, Jean — Babar Series · Picture book
• Ellis, Carson — Du Iz Tak? · Picture book
• Flack, Marjorie — The Story About Ping · Picture book
• Gag, Wanda — Gone Is Gone · Picture book
• Geisel, Theodore (Dr. Seuss) — Dr. Seuss Beginner Book Set · Picture book
• Knapman, Timothy — Can’t Catch Me · Picture book
• Maclear, Kyo — Virginia Wolf · Picture book
• Muldrow, Diane — The Little Red Hen · Picture book
• Piper, Watty — The Little Engine That Could · Picture book
• Steig, William — The Amazing Bone · Picture book
• Steig, William — Sylvester and the Magic Pebble · Picture book
• Steig, William — Doctor De Soto · Picture book
• Steig, William — Brave Irene · Picture book
• Thayer, Ernest L. — Casey at the Bat · Picture book
• Williams, Margery — The Velveteen Rabbit · Picture book

Western

• Adams, Andy — The Log of a Cowboy · Chapter book
• James, Will — Smoky the Cowhorse · Chapter book
• Moody, Ralph — Little Britches · Chapter book
• Moody, Ralph — Man of the Family · Chapter book

Booklist for Ages 8-12

146 titles. Source table: Datawrapper jMX6Z/5; archived as booklist-ages-8-12-datawrapper-jMX6Z.tsv. Lexile level in brackets where the list gives one.

Adventure

• Abbey, Edward — Fire on the Mountain · Lexile 860
• Burroughs, Edgar Rice — Tarzan of the Apes · Lexile 1200
• Defoe, Daniel — Robinson Crusoe · Lexile 1360
• Dumas, Alexandre — The Count of Monte Cristo · Lexile 1080
• Fleishman, Sid — By the Great Horn Spoon · Lexile 730
• Forbes, Esther — Johnny Tremain · Lexile 840
• George, Jean — My Side of the Mountain · Lexile 700
• Kipling, Rudyard — Captains Courageous · Lexile 1020
• Marryat, Frederick — Mr. Midshipman Easy
• Orczy, Baroness — The Scarlet Pimpernel · Lexile 1140
• Paulsen, Gary — Hatchet · Lexile 1020
• Speare, Elizabeth George — Sign of the Beaver · Lexile 770
• Stevenson, Robert Louis — Kidnapped · Lexile 990
• Stevenson, Robert Louis — The Black Arrow · Lexile 980
• Verne, Jules — Around the World in 80 Days · Lexile 1070

Animal Stories

• Adams, Richard — Watership Down · Lexile 880
• Burnsford, Sheila — The Incredible Journey · Lexile 1320
• DiCamillo, Kate — Because of Winn-Dixie · Lexile 670
• Gipson, Fred — Old Yeller · Lexile 910
• Henry, Marguerite — Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin · Lexile 730
• Henry, Marguerite — Brighty of the Grand Canyon · Lexile 880
• Henry, Marguerite — Misty of Chincoteague · Lexile 750
• Herriott, James — All Creatures Great and Small · Lexile 990
• London, Jack — Call of the Wild · Lexile 1000
• London, Jack — White Fang · Lexile 970
• Rawlings, Marjorie — The Yearling · Lexile 750
• Reynolds-Naylor, Phyllis — Shiloh · Lexile 890

Anthology

• Bulfinch, Thomas — Bulfinch’s Greek and Roman Mythology: The Age of the Fable · Lexile 1200
• Bulfinch, Thomas — Bulfinch’s Medieval Mythology · Lexile 1200
• Colum, Padraic — Children’s Homer · Lexile 1070
• Dahl, Roald — Roald Dahl Treasury · Lexile 860
• Garland, Hamlin — Main-Travelled Roads · Lexile 1000
• Guest, Edgar A — Collected Works of Edgar A. Guest · Lexile 900
• Irving, Washington — Sleepy Hollow · Lexile 1460
• Irving, Washington — The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent · Lexile 1380
• Kingsley, Charles — The Heroes; or Greek Fairy Tales: For My Children · Lexile 1030
• Kipling, Rudyard — Puck of Pook’s Hill · Lexile 900
• Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth — Evangeline
• McGuffey, William — McGuffey’s Eclectic Readers
• Shephard, Esther — Paul Bunyan and Other Tall Tales · Lexile 1360
• Sword, Elizabeth — A Child’s Anthology of Poetry · Lexile NP

Autobiography

• Crockett, David — Davy Crockett: His Own Story: A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett · Lexile 900
• Douglass, Frederick — Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, a Slave · Lexile 1140
• Ten Boom, Corrie — The Hiding Place · Lexile 900

Autoboigraphy

• Keller, Helen — Helen Keller: The Story of My Life · Lexile 1090

Biography

• Allison, Andrew — The Real Benjamin Franklin · Lexile 740
• Allison, Andrew — The Real Thomas Jefferson · Lexile 760
• Frank, Anne — Diary of a Young Girl · Lexile 1020
• Parry, Jay A. — The Real George Washington · Lexile 720

Drama

• Gibson, William — The Miracle Worker
• Rostand, Edmond — Cyrano de Bergerac · Lexile 940

Epics

• Morris, William — The Story of Sigurd the Volsung · Lexile 1050

Fantasy

• Avi — Perloo the Bold · Lexile 730
• Bulla, Clyde Robert — Sword in the Tree · Lexile 540
• Carroll, Lewis — Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland · Lexile 890
• Carroll, Lewis — Through the Looking Glass · Lexile 890
• Dahl, Roald — Matilda · Lexile 840
• deAngeli, Marguerite — Door in the Wall · Lexile 920
• Grahame, Kenneth — Reluctant Dragon · Lexile 1010
• Jacques, Brian — Redwall · Lexile 800
• Lewis, C.S. — The Chronicles of Narnia · Lexile 870-970
• Lofting, Hugh — Doctor Dolittle · Lexile 820
• Morpurgo, Michael — Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearlm and Sir Orfeo · Lexile 1050
• Pyle, Howard — Robin Hood · Lexile 1030
• Tolkien, J.R.R. — Lord of the Rings · Lexile 920
• Tolkien, J.R.R. — The Hobbit · Lexile 1000
• Twain, Mark — A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court · Lexile 1080
• White, T.H. — The Once and Future King · Lexile 1080

Fiction

• Alcott, Louis May — Little Men · Lexile 1150
• Alcott, Louisa May — Eight Cousins · Lexile 1150
• Alcott, Louisa May — Little Women · Lexile 1090
• Aldrich, Thomas Bailey — Story of a Bad Boy
• Bagnold, Enid — National Velvet · Lexile 700
• Burnett, Frances Hodgson — A Little Princess · Lexile 940
• Burnett, Frances Hodgson — Little Lord Fauntleroy · Lexile 560
• Burnett, Frances Hodgson — The Lost Prince · Lexile 910
• Burnett, Frances Hodgson — The Secret Garden · Lexile 920
• de La Bédollière, Émile — The Story of a Cat · Lexile 800
• Dickens, Charles — A Christmas Carol · Lexile 900
• Dickens, Charles — Oliver Twist · Lexile 1060
• Doyle, Arthur Conan — The Hound of the Baskervilles · Lexile 1170
• Forbes, Kathryn — Mama’s Bank Account · Lexile 820
• Juster, Norton — The Phantom Toolbooth · Lexile 1000
• Konigsburg, E.L. — From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler · Lexile 700
• Lamb, Charles and Mary — Tales from Shakespeare · Lexile 1390
• Lee, Harper — To Kill a Mockingbird · Lexile 790
• Lenski, Lois — Strawberry Girl · Lexile 650
• Montgomery, L.M. — Anne of Green Gables · Lexile 990
• Montgomery, L.M. — Emily of New Moon · Lexile 990
• Orwell, George — Animal Farm · Lexile 1170
• Parish, Peggy — Amelia Bedelia
• Porter, Eleanor — Pollyanna · Lexile 870
• Rawls, Wilson — Summer of the Monkeys · Lexile 810
• Rawls, Wilson — Where the Red Fern Grows · Lexile 700
• Stratton-Porter, Gene — Freckles · Lexile 850
• Stratton-Porter, Gene — Girl of the Limberlost · Lexile 850
• Stratton-Potter, Gene — A Daughter of the Land · Lexile 850
• Stratton-Potter, Gene — Michael O’Halloran · Lexile 850
• Sutcliff, Rosemary — Black Ships Before Troy · Lexile 1240
• Tarkington, Booth — Penrod
• Twain, Mark — The Prince and the Pauper · Lexile 1170
• Twain, Mark — Tom Sawyer · Lexile 970
• Wiggin, Kate Douglas — Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm · Lexile 1190

Historical Fiction

• Cline, Edward — Sparrowhawk · Lexile 900
• Dalgliesh, Alice — The Courage of Sarah Noble · Lexile 610
• Hall, James Norman — Falcons of France · Lexile 930
• Henty, G.A. — Lion of the North: A Tale of the Times of Gustavus Adolphus · Lexile 1190
• Henty, G.A. — The Boy Knight · Lexile 1060
• Henty, G.A. — The Knight of the White Cross: a Tale of the Siege of Rhodes · Lexile 1310
• Henty, G.A. — Wulf the Saxon: A Story of the Norman Conquest · Lexile 1150
• Holm, Anne — North to Freedom · Lexile 890
• L’Amour, Louis — Sackett’s Land · Lexile 940
• Scott, Sir Walter — Kenilworth · Lexile 1410
• Scott, Sir Walter — Rob Roy · Lexile 1560
• Scott, Sir Walter — The Talisman · Lexile 1410
• Speare, Elizabeth George — Calico Captive · Lexile 900
• Sutcliff, Rosemary — Beowulf
• Sutcliff, Rosemary — Knight’s Fee · Lexile 1170
• Sutcliff, Rosemary — Outcast · Lexile 1100
• Sutcliff, Rosemary — The Eagle of the Ninth · Lexile 1060
• Taylor, Mildred — Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry · Lexile 920
• Twain, Mark — Joan of Arc · Lexile 1100

History

• Hillyer, V.M. — A Child’s History of the World · Lexile NP
• Roosevelt, Theodore and Lodge, Henry Cabot — Hero Tales from American History · Lexile 1000
• Van Loon, Hendrik Willem — The Story of Mankind · Lexile 1260

Science Fiction

• Asimov, Isaac — Foundation · Lexile 830
• Bradbury, Ray — Fahrenheit 451 · Lexile 890
• Burroughs, Edgar Rice — The Chessman of Mars · Lexile 1370
• Card, Orson Scott — Ender’s Game · Lexile 780
• L’Engle, Madeleine — A Wrinkle in Time · Lexile 740
• Lowry, Lois — The Giver · Lexile 760
• Nelson, O.T. — The Girl Who Owned a City · Lexile 660
• O’Brien, Robert — Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH · Lexile 790
• Rand, Ayn — Anthem · Lexile 880
• Verne, Jules — From the Earth to the Moon · Lexile 1000
• Verne, Jules — Journey to the Center of the Earth · Lexile 1040

Western

• Adams, Andy — Wells Brothers: the Young Cattle Kings
• Henty, G.A. — A Tale of the Western Plains · Lexile 1030
• L’Amour, Louis — The Lonesome Gods · Lexile 1000
• Moody, Ralph — Horse of a Different Color · Lexile 1210
• Moody, Ralph — Mary Emma and Company · Lexile 1130
• Moody, Ralph — Shaking the Nickel Bush · Lexile 1200
• Moody, Ralph — The Dry Divide · Lexile 1240
• Moody, Ralph — The Fields of Home · Lexile 960
• Moody, Ralph — The Home Ranch · Lexile 1050
• Schaefer, Jack — Shane · Lexile 870

Booklist for Ages 13-99+

174 titles. Source table: Datawrapper dzDQA/6; archived as booklist-ages-13-99-datawrapper-dzDQA.csv. Lexile level in brackets where the list gives one.

Adventure

• Cooper, James Fenimore — Pilot: A Tale of the Sea · Lexile 1300
• Cooper, James Fenimore — The Last of the Mohicans · Lexile 1350
• Cooper, James Fenimore — The Two Admirals · Lexile 1300
• Dana, Richard Henry — Two Years Before the Mast · Lexile 1290
• Kipling, Rudyard — Captains Courageous · Lexile 1020

Autobiography

• Adams, Henry — The Education of Henry Adams · Lexile 1200
• Douglass, Frederick — Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass · Lexile 1140
• Frankl, Victor — Man’s Search for Meaning · Lexile 1020
• Hudson, W.H. — Far Away and Long Ago · Lexile 1000
• Keller, Helen — Helen Keller: The Story of My Life · Lexile 1090
• Stevenson, Robert Louis — The Silverado Squatters · Lexile 1120
• Washington, Booker T. — Up From Slavery · Lexile 1320

Drama

• Aeschylus — The Oresteia: Agamemnon; The Libation Bearers; The Eumenides · Lexile 1380
• Aristophanes — The Complete Plays of Aristophanes · Lexile 1470
• Grene, David — Greek Tragedies, Volume 1 · Lexile 1130
• Grene, David — Greek Tragedies, Volume 2 · Lexile 1130
• Grene, David — Greek Tragedies, Volume 3 · Lexile 1130
• Ibsen, Henrik — An Enemy of the People · Lexile 1250
• Miller, Arthur — Death of a Salesman · Lexile 1320
• Shakespeare, William — The Complete Works of William Shakespeare · Lexile 1350
• Sophocles — The Three Theban Plays: Antigone; Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Colonus · Lexile 1100
• Voltaire, Francois — Candide · Lexile 1110
• Wilde, Oscar — The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde · Lexile 1280
• Williams, Tennessee — The Glass Menagerie · Lexile 1350

Economics

• Hazlitt, Henry — Economics in One Lesson · Lexile 1000
• Smith, Adam — An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations · Lexile 1500
• Sowell, Thomas — Basic Economics · Lexile 1480

Fantasy

• Tolkien, J.R.R. — Lord of the Rings · Lexile 920
• Tolkien, J.R.R. — The Hobbit · Lexile 1000
• Tolkien, J.R.R. — The Silmarillion · Lexile 1150

Fiction

• Abbott, Edwin — Flatland · Lexile 1280
• Achebe, Chinua — Things Fall Apart · Lexile 890
• Austen, Jane — Pride and Prejudice · Lexile 1030
• Austen, Jane — Sense and Sensibility · Lexile 980
• Bradbury, Ray — Farhenheit 451 · Lexile 890
• Bronte, Charlotte — Jane Eyre · Lexile 890
• Bronte, Emily — Wuthering Heights · Lexile 960
• Camus, Albert — The Stranger · Lexile 880
• Chaucer, Geoffrey — Canterbury Tales · Lexile 1290
• Chopin, Kate — The Awakening · Lexile 1030
• Clancy, Tom — The Hunt For Red October · Lexile 870
• Clavell, James — Shogun · Lexile 880
• Collins, Suzanne — The Hunger Games Trilogy · Lexile 810
• Conrad, Joseph — Heart of Darkness · Lexile 950
• Crane, Stephen — The Complete Short Stories of Stephen Crane · Lexile 850-1000
• Crane, Stephen — The Red Badge of Courage · Lexile 900
• cummings, e.e. — The Enormous Room · Lexile 1000
• Dickens, Charles — A Tale of Two Cities · Lexile 720
• Dickens, Charles — David Copperfield · Lexile 1070
• Dickens, Charles — Great Expectations · Lexile 1150
• Dickens, Charles — Oliver Twist · Lexile 1060
• Dostoevsky, Fyodor — Crime and Punishment · Lexile 990
• Dostoevsky, Fyodor — The Brothers Karamazov · Lexile 1150
• Dumas, Alexandre — The Count of Monte Cristo · Lexile 1080
• Dumas, Alexandre — The Three Musketeers · Lexile 1080
• Ellison, Ralph — Invisible Man · Lexile 870
• Erasmus, Desiderius — Praise of Folly · Lexile 1100
• Faulkner, William — As I Lay Dying · Lexile 870
• Faulkner, William — Light in August · Lexile 870
• Faulkner, William — The Sound and the Fury · Lexile 870
• Fitzgerald, F. Scott — The Great Gatsby · Lexile 1010
• Flaubert, Gustave — Madame Bovary · Lexile 1030
• Gaines, Ernest — A Lesson Before Dying · Lexile 750
• Golding, William — Lord of the Flies · Lexile 770
• Grimm, Jacob — Germanic Mythology · Lexile 1100
• Hawthorne, Nathaniel — The Scarlet Letter · Lexile 1420
• Heaney, Seamus — Beowulf · Lexile 1090
• Heller, Joseph — Catch-22 · Lexile 1140
• Hemingway, Ernest — For Whom the Bell Tolls · Lexile 840
• Hemingway, Ernest — The Old Man and the Sea · Lexile 940
• Hemingway, Ernest — The Sun Also Rises · Lexile 680
• Herbert, Frank — Dune · Lexile 800
• Homer, Wilson (Trans.) — The Iliad · Lexile 1040
• Homer, Wilson (Trans.) — The Odyssey · Lexile 1050
• Huxley, Aldous — Brave New World · Lexile 870
• Irving, Washington — The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent · Lexile 1380
• James, Henry — The American · Lexile 1100
• Juvenal — The Satires · Lexile 1160
• Lewis, C.S. — The Screwtape Letters · Lexile 1170
• Mann, Thomas — Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family · Lexile 1100
• Marlowe, Christopher — Dr. Faustus
• McCarthy, Cormac — All the Pretty Horses · Lexile 940
• Melville, Herman — Moby Dick · Lexile 1230
• Mitchell, W.O. — Who Has Seen the Wind? · Lexile 900
• Moore, Thomas — Utopia · Lexile 1420
• Orwell, George — 1984 · Lexile 1090
• Orwell, George — Animal Farm · Lexile 1170
• Robbins, David L. — War of the Rats · Lexile 900
• Rolvaag, O.E. — Giants in the Earth · Lexile 830
• Shelley, Mary — Frankenstein · Lexile 1040
• Smith, Betty — A Tree Grows in Brooklyn · Lexile 810
• Somerset Maugham, William — Of Human Bondage · Lexile 1100
• Steinbeck, John — East of Eden · Lexile 700
• Steinbeck, John — Grapes of Wrath · Lexile 680
• Steinbeck, John — Of Mice and Men · Lexile 640
• Steinbeck, John — The Pearl · Lexile 1000
• Stendhal — The Red and the Black · Lexile 1080
• Stoker, Bram — Dracula · Lexile 990
• Stratton-Porter — At the Foot of the Rainbow · Lexile 850
• Swift, Jonathan — Gulliver’s Travels · Lexile 1300
• Tolstoy, Leo — Anna Karenina · Lexile 1080
• Tolstoy, Leo — The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories · Lexile 1010
• Tolstoy, Leo — War and Peace · Lexile 1200
• Trollope, Anthony — The Way We Live Now · Lexile 1080
• Virgil — The Aeneid · Lexile 1230
• Vonnegut, Kurt — Slaughterhouse-Five · Lexile 850
• Wharton, Edith — Age of Innocence · Lexile 1170
• Wright, Richard — Native Son · Lexile 700
• Joyce, James — Dubliners · Lexile 900-1100

HIstory

• Richard, Carl J. — The Founders and the Classics: Greece, Rome, and the American Enlightenment · Lexile 1200
• Tacitus, Cornelius — Annals · Lexile 1350

Historical Fiction

• Cline, Edward — Sparrowhawk (Book 1 of 5 in Series) · Lexile 900
• L’Amour, Louis — Sackett’s Land (Book 1 of 17 in Series) · Lexile 940
• Nordhoff, Charles — Falcons of France · Lexile 930

History

• Bauer, Susan Wise — The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade · Lexile 1430
• Bede — Ecclesiastical History of the English People · Lexile 1430
• Caesar, Julius — The Conquest of Gaul · Lexile 1200
• Cahill, Thomas — Heretics and Heroes · Lexile 1000
• Cahill, Thomas — How the Irish Saved Civilization · Lexile 1000
• Cahill, Thomas — Mysteries of the Middle Ages · Lexile 1000
• Cahill, Thomas — Sailing the Wine Dark Sea · Lexile 1000
• Cahill, Thomas — The Gifts of the Jews · Lexile 1000
• Davies, Norman — A History of Europe · Lexile 1200
• Dryden, John — Plutarch’s Lives · Lexile 1690
• Einhard — Two Lives of Charlemagne · Lexile 1000
• Fischer, David Hackett — Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America · Lexile 1230
• Heather, Peter — The Fall of Rome and the Birth of Europe · Lexile 1100
• Herman, Arthur — The Scottish Enlightenment: The Scots Invention of the Modern World · Lexile 1100
• Langguth, A.J. — Patriots · Lexile 1000
• Livy — Early History of Rome · Lexile 1390
• Suetonius — Twelve Caesars · Lexile 1000
• Tacitus, Cornelius — Germania · Lexile 1360
• Thucydides — The Landmark Thucydides · Lexile 1460
• Tuchman, Barbara — A Distant Mirror · Lexile 1350
• Tuchman, Barbara — The Guns of August · Lexile 1350
• Webb, James — Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America · Lexile 1000

NonFiction

• Saint-Exupery, Antoine — Wind, Sand and Stars · Lexile 1100

Nonfiction

• Hersey, John — Hiroshima · Lexile 1190
• Hickam, Homer — Rocket Boys · Lexile 900
• Leckie, Robert — Helmet for My Pillow · Lexile 1000
• Sledge, E.B. — With the Old Breed at Pelelieu and Okinawa · Lexile 900
• Ten Boom, Corrie — The Hiding Place · Lexile 900
• Tubman, Harriet — Life and Stories · Lexile 800

Philosophy

• Aurelius, Marcus — Meditations · Lexile 1000
• Lewis, C.S. — The Abolition of Man · Lexile 900
• Lucretius — On the Nature of Things · Lexile 1370
• McKeon, Richard — The Basic Works of Aristotle · Lexile 1200
• Pascal, Blaise — The Penseés · Lexile 1100
• Plato — Collected Dialogues · Lexile 1240

Poetry

• Guest, Edgar A. — Collected Works · Lexile 900
• Hesiod — Theogeny · Lexile 1280
• Ricks, Christopher — The Oxford Book of English Verse · Lexile 1300
• Whitman, Walt — Leaves of Grass · Lexile 1310

Political Philosophy

• Burke, Edmund — Reflections on the Revolution in France · Lexile 1390
• Cicero — On Duties · Lexile 1320
• deTocqueville, Alexis — Democracy in America · Lexile 1310
• Douglass, Stephen aand Lincoln, Abraham — The Lincoln Douglas Debates · Lexile 1370
• DuBois, W.E.B. — The Souls of Black Folk · Lexile 1200
• Gordon and Trenchard — Cato’s Letters · Lexile 1100
• Hobbes, Thomas — Leviathan · Lexile 1470
• Hume, David L. — Essays: Moral, Political, Literary · Lexile 1330
• Locke, John — An Essay Concerning Human Understanding · Lexile 1590
• Macchiavelli, Niccolo — The Prince · Lexile 1350
• Paine, Thomas — Common Sense · Lexile 1260
• Smith, Adam — The Theory of Moral Sentiments · Lexile 1570
• Sun Tzu — The Art of War · Lexile 1350
• Thoreau, Henry David — Walden and Civil Disobedience · Lexile 1340
• Thucydides — On Justice, Power, and Human Nature · Lexile 1460
• Von Clauswitz, General Carl — On War · Lexile 1200

Western

• L’Amour, Louis — The Lonesome Gods · Lexile 1000
• McCarthy, Cormac — Blood Meridian · Lexile 1100
• McMurtry, Larry — Lonesome Dove · Lexile 1000
• Portis, Charles — True Grit · Lexile 800
• Wister, Owen — The Virginian · Lexile 830

Every book on this list

4 books; ✓ marks the ones Kyle has read.

Ages 13-99+ band — Adventure

• The Pilot: A Tale of the Sea — James Fenimore Cooper

Ages 13-99+ band — Philosophy

• Pensées — Blaise Pascal
• The Collected Dialogues of Plato — Plato, edited by Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns

Ages 13-99+ band — Poetry

• Theogony and Works and Days — Hesiod

Books on this list Kyle has read

Titles on this list that Kyle has already read.

• Crime & Punishment ✓
• Walden ✓

Connections

• It Is Done Here Are… (tweet) — the X post that announced the library and that Kyle saved.
• Republic of Letters — the portfolio idea a canon list of this shape sits under.
• Books To Read — the anti-library proper. No cards were minted from this roster: it is a third party’s curated canon, and 468 cards would drown Kyle’s own list.