Young Readers Study Program

The Young Readers Collection was created especially for families with elementary aged students. We took the shortest, easiest selections from each of our civilization-based collections and put them in one library so novice readers can access all of our easiest-to-read books.


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About the Young Readers' Collection

The Young Readers program is the perfect introduction to the Heritage Classical Curriculum. It includes easy-to-read, introductory selections from many historical periods and provides a broad introduction to Western Culture suitable for grammar school age students.

The Young Readers Collection represents a broad and age-appropriate introduction to all of Western Civilization. Primary subjects include American History, Bible and Saint Stories, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern European history, Legends, and simplified literature. The selected books touch on many important events in Western history, in a child-friendly, easy-to-understand manner.

Instead of trying to cover history in sequence, students can read books in any order. After reading a few dozen short books, they will have been introduced to an assortment of characters and can focus on those incidents of greatest interest. By the time students outgrow the Young Readers collection, they will already be familiar with all the major periods of Western Civilization.

All of the books in the Young Readers library can be read by an older grammar school student, but they are also appropriate for read-aloud to younger children. And although the stories are told in simple enough terms for a nine or ten-year-old to understand, they are engaging enough to be of interest to older students as well.

In addition to history stories, the Young Readers collection includes legends, adapted literature, historical fiction, and short biographies. Such books provide an excellent transition from children's fiction to serious historical works. Reading even a fraction of the books in this collection will expose students to hundreds of famous historical characters and will provide an excellent foundation for future learning.

The Young Readers library is one of our largest collections, with over eighty books to choose from. Many of the books in this collection are simple enough for a fluent reader to complete in only a few hours, so avid readers may be able to read dozens of books from the collection before moving on to more challenging material. Reading a selection of these books will expose students to hundreds of famous historical characters and will be an excellent foundation for future learning.


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Reading Recommendations

In most of our more advanced study program we make specific recommendations for 'core' reading selections. In all cases we encourage students to read as much as possible, but when studying a particular historical topic, there are certain 'essentials' that need to be covered.

In the case of elementary students, however, we believe they can benefit from reading any book in the Young Reader's collection in any order. There is no particular list of 'recommended' books, but there are several ways to access appropriate selections.



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Study Resources

Study aids exist for the Young Readers collection, but there is no organized program of study, no 'History Quest option, and no selection of review questions.

Study Aids organized by Era