Family Read-Alouds

This list of books is not intended to be exhaustive. There are many, many wonderful books which may be recommended as read-alouds by various curricula. Many of these illustrate universal truths and virtues beautifully and should not be missed. There are many wonderful books that are published by Orthodox publishers, and we feel that you will probably already be familiar with those because of their catalogs and websites. What we have provided below are books we stumbled on or had recommended to us that we might have otherwise missed and that we felt had value as representations of Greek, Middle Eastern, or Russian culture or history or were just too illustrative of an element of Christian faith to be overlooked. As such, it is impossible for such a list to ever feel complete or sufficient, and we do not claim that it is.

NOTE: Even though these are provided for the purpose of reading aloud to the whole family, these titles are listed by form (roughly years / grades 1-3 for Form I, 4-6 for Form II, and 7-9 for Form III) in case you want to hand them off to a child as a free read and so that you have an idea of the difficulty level of the text and/or maturity needed.

Form I: The Hungry Coat: A Tale from Turkey (a humorous story about Turkey's most famous folk hero, Nasrettin Hoca)

Form I: The Golden Sandal: A Middle Eastern Cinderella Story – Rebecca Hickox (beautiful retelling of Iraqi folk tale)

Form I: Legend of the Persian Carpet – Tomie dePaola, Claire Ewart (folktale origin of famous Persian carpets)

Form I: The King and the Three Thieves: A Persian Tale – Kristin, Omid Balouch (story from Old Persia)

Form I: Babushka’s Doll – Patricia Polacco (Russian folktale based on the timeless theme of children dreaming their toys come to life)

Form I: Rechenka’s Eggs – Patricia Polacco (folktale about a special goose, features beautiful pysanky)

Form I: Cat and the Cook and Other Fables of Krylov - Ethel Heins (illustrated Russian children’s fables)

Form I: Tales Told in Tents: Stories from Central Asia – Sally Pomme Clayton (12 traditional folktales)

Form I: Miracle of St. Nicholas - Gloria Whelan (Christmas in a previously closed-up village church) 

Form I: The Magic Nesting Doll - Jacqueline K. Ogburn (a matryoshka doll story reminiscent of "The Nutcracker" or "The Steadfast Tin Soldier")

Form I: The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship - Arthur Ransome (the fool takes on an impossible task to marry the Czar's daughter)

Form I: Baboushka - Arthur Scholey (Baboushka travels the world with a bag of gifts for the Christ child after missing the opportunity to accompany the Wise Men)

Form I: The Trees Kneel at Christmas by Maud Hart Lovelace (After Grandmother explains why the trees in Lebanon kneel at Christmas, Afify and Hanna hope to witness a similar miracle in Brooklyn's Prospect Park.) 

Form II: Knight of the White Cross: A Tale of the Siege of Rhodes - G. A. Henty 

Form II: In Greek Waters: A Story of Grecian Independence - G. A. Henty 

Form II: My Village by the Sea: Folktales of Greece – Vilma Liacouras Chantiles

Form II: Through Russian Snows: A Story of Napoleon’s Retreat from Moscow - G. A. Henty (Napoleon War 1812 )

Form II: To Herat and Cabul: A Story of the 1st Afghan War - G. A. Henty (Afghanistan 1838-42; Britain and Russia)

Form II: Jack Archer: A Tale of the Crimea - G. A. Henty (set during the Crimean War, southern Ukraine 1854-56)

Form II: Gallant Grenadier - Captain Brereton (Ukraine: set during the Crimean War, 1854-56) BH

Form II: Drummer Boy’s Battle - Dave and Neta Jackson (Trailblazer series, story of Florence Nightingale 1820-1912)

Form II: For Name and Fame: With Roberts to Cabul – G. A. Henty (1878 Afghanistan, Russians in 2nd Afghan War)

Form II: Royal Diaries of Anastasia: The Last Grand Duchess - Carolyn Meyer (1914 Russia, lots of historical detail)

Form II: The Courage of Nikolai – Mary E. Ropes (dramatic fiction based on historical events) 

Form II: Breadwinner ; Parvana’s Journey ; and Mud City – Deborah Ellis (trilogy about a girl who must support family disguised as boy under Taliban rule Afghanistan)

Form II: Russian Fairy Tales – Aleksandr Afanasev (tales collected by the well-known folklorist and illustrated by renowned artist and stage designer Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin)

Form II: The Kitchen Madonna - Rumer Godden (British children sacrifice to buy an icon for their Ukrainian nanny)

Form II: Fingal's Quest - Madeleine Polland (a young man on a journey to find his master discovers his own calling)

Form II: Beorn the Proud - Madeleine Polland (twelve-year-old protagonist learns Christian humility from his young Irish captive)

Form II or III: A Trace in the Sand: A Tale of the Early Martyrs published by St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood (historical fiction; a senator's son's life is saved by a Christian slave, prompting him to question all that he believes - originally published in Greek)

Form III: Travelers’ Tales Greece: True Stories – Larry Habegger, Sean O’Reilly

Form III: Dancing Bear - Peter Dickinson (Byzantine slave boy journeys to Hun territory to rescue captured princess) 

Form III: Anna of Byzantium - Tracy Barrett (father was Alexis, Emperor of Constantinople during 1st crusade) 

Form III: Emperor’s Winding Sheet - Jill Paton Walsh (set against the Fall of Constantinople in 1453; very long and involved tale) 

Form III: If You Love Me Nothing Else Matters - Patricia St. John (1973 Lebanon: Arab Christians, Muslim takeover)

Form III: Sons of the Steppe  and 3 other ... of the Steppe books - Harold Lamb (swashbuckling short stories)

Form III: Wild Children - Felice Holman (children orphaned during Bolshevik Revolution)

Form III: Lost Tales: Stories for the Tsar’s Children - Gleb Botkin (fables which satire the 1917 revolution)

Form III: The Fullness of Joy: A Story of Loss and Renewal - Georgia Briggs (story of St. Seraphim of Sarov as told by a bear that visits him)

Form III: Voyage to the Rock - Fr. Matthew Penney (a priest's son struggles with a move to remote Newfoundland and develops a relationship with an ancient saint in the process)

Form IV: Silence - Shusako Endo (classic novel of enduring faith under persecution)

Form IV: Laurus -  Eugene Vodolazkin (legendary journey of redemption of a 15th-century healer)

Form IV: The Diary of a Country Priest - George Bernanos (a Catholic priest learns spiritual humility as he strives to love his indifferent parishioners)

Form IV: The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky (philosophical novel from the golden age of Russia that explores questions of God, free will, and morality)