This year my boys and I digging into Ancient Civilizations for the first time. It was perfect timing because my eight year old became obsessed with Greek mythology over the summer. So Ancient Greece was on the top of his list. As always, I did an unhealthy amount of research on which books to read. We didn’t make it through the entire list, but that means more for the next time this period comes around!

We studied Ancient Civilizations (including Ancient Egypt) the first term and I’ve compiled all the books about these topics and the books we read and recommend:

Spines

• Story of the World:  Ancient Times volume 1 (form 1)
  We’ve been using this series for years. My eight year old really enjoyed this one. I like that it covers countries other than Israel and Egypt, like India and China. 
• Ancient Egypt and her Neighbors by Lorene Lambert (from Simply Charlotte Mason) (all forms)
• The Story of Civilization Volume 1 by Phillips Campbell (form 2)
  My ten year old son is reading this book and enjoys it. He usually reads more chapters than he is supposed to because he enjoys the stories that much. It just covers Egypt/ Middle East as well as Ancient Greece. 
• The Riddle of the Rosetta Stone by James Cross Giblin
  This book is short, but goes more in depth into the Rosetta Stone. My son enjoyed it and I recommend it to read along with The Story of Civilization. 
• In the Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World (forms 4-6)
• The Rosetta Stone and the Rebirth of Ancient Egypt (forms 4-6)
• The Ancient Egyptian World (forms 4-6)
• The World David Knew: Connecting the Vast Ancient World to Israel’s Great King (forms 4-6)
• Mesopotamia: The Invention of the City (forms 4-6)
• Ancient Empires: From Mesopotamia to the Rise of Islam (forms 4-6)

Picture Books

We read all of these picture books and enjoyed them! I used 

• Ancient Egypt: Tales of Gods and Pharaohs by Marcia Williams
• The Egyptian Cinderella by Shirley Climo
• Gift Of The Nile by Jan M. Mike
• Seeker of Knowledge: The Man who Deciphered Egyptian Hieroglyphs by James Rumford
• Hieroglyphs by Joyce Milton
• The Shipwrecked Sailor: An Egyptian Tale with Hieroglyphs by Tamara Bower
• Mummies Made in Egypt by Aliki
• I Am the Mummy Heb-Nefert, Eve Bunting
• Pharoah’s Boat by David Weitzman
• The Great Wall of China by Leonard Everett
• A Grain of Rice by Demi (folktale)
• The Empty Pot by Demi (folktale)

Other

• Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt by Elizabeth Payne
  My son read about half of this. We didn’t have time to finish this term, and he didn’t seem interested in reading anymore, but I recommend it!
• The Great Pyramid by Elizabeth Mann
  I love all of Elizabeth Mann’s books. This one we didn’t read, but we’ve read other books from her architecture series and they are fabulous.
• Pyramid by David Macaulay
  My 10 year old read most of this book and enjoyed it. His narrations were always detailed and lively.

Historical Fiction

• The Golden Goblet by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
  I read this aloud to all three of my boys and we all loved it. It was a little slow at first, but towards the end it picked up. We learned so much about Ancient Egypt and what it would have been like to be a boy during that time. 
• Boy of the Pyramids by Ruth Fosdick Jones
• Mara: Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
• Hittite Warrior by Joanne Williamson

Literature 

• Aesop’s Fables, illustrated by Milo Winter (Form 1)
• The D’Aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths (Form 2)
• The Wanderings of Odysseus: The Story of the Odyssey, by Rosemary Sutcliff (form 2 or 3)
• Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of the Iliad, by Rosemary Sutcliff (form 2 or 3)