Does Spirituality Belong in the Classroom? How Prayer and Worship Impact a Student's Experience

What happens when spirituality becomes a big part of what takes place at school? Does it disturb the child’s learning process or make it more dynamic? Some may send their kids to a Christian school more so to get out of the public education system than to have their child involved in the spiritual practices a Christian school offers. If that is the case, then what they don’t realize is how those spiritual practices actually shape these schools into the wonderful places of holistic education they are trying to be. Spirituality is not a hindrance to one’s mental capacities, but instead encourages the building up of the mind as a part of one’s overall development as a person. So let’s take a look at how spiritual elements such as Bible reading, prayer, and worship actually work in favor of a child's education. 

People who think that spiritual things could prevent students from learning facts often forget to consider how useless learning facts are if not applied in a way that is beneficial to a society. Without God’s word guiding us, how could we effectively apply the knowledge we gain? Learning the Bible develops wisdom, allowing students to put to good use what they learn in their classes. Even the brightest students may not know how to produce much with their lives if they are void of the ethical guidance from Scripture. This requires students to develop their critical thinking skills in order to figure out how to exercise the information they are absorbing in a way that aligns with God’s will. This turns students into future leaders because they have direction and know how to utilize the knowledge and skills they possess to get there. 

Each week, all K-12 students participate in chapel worship and bible teaching. This intentional time of focus on spiritual development is a guiding exercise for students to implement throughout other parts of their week.

Alongside learning the Bible, prayer is another essential component. It is not just the regurgitation of dead, religious words, but a connection to a living God. This is why prayer should be our first response when encountering problems, because without asking God for a heavenly perspective of how to solve the issue at hand, our solutions are going to be inadequate. By encouraging students to connect with the God who created the universe, it teaches them to step back, look at the bigger picture, and approach the issue with creativity. This gives them confidence to overcome the obstacles life will throw at them, in whatever form they may be, allowing them to be innovative thinkers as they move out of schooling and into the workforce.  

Worship through song is a method to connect with God, and focus one’s mind and energies on him. Worship and prayer can lead to better emotional stability by providing an outlet as they share their struggles with the Lord. Spiritually healthy individuals will not be overcome by the distractions life lets in, but will be able to maintain focus on their times of education, knowing it is an essential step in the journey God has planned for their life. These spiritual activities of Bible reading, prayer and worship create focused, ingenuitive students who can critically think and who have direction. These are the types of students we want to develop, and spirituality in the classroom is how to get there. 

Sources: 

Garner, Gregg. Entrepreneurial Skills. The Institute for G.O.D. International. Old Hickory, TN. March 2022. 

Going Back to School? 5 Tips to Get Your Students Ready

Switching up schedules, gathering supplies, and preparing to face new educational challenges can be stressful for students and parents alike, especially when you are also saying goodbye to summer. Some years the transition is easier than others, but there are some things we can do to help our children start the school year off on a good note. 

1. Get Back into Their School Routine Before School Begins

One way to prep kids for a return to school is by getting them on a schedule they will have during the academic year. If the kids wake up at 6:00 am and go to sleep at 9:00 pm during the school year, then get them back in this routine a week or two prior to classes starting. If they have after-school chores, have them do them at the time they will do them once school resumes. This minimizes the adjustments that will take place once school starts, allowing them to focus more on their new classes.

2. Build Up Their Mental Stamina Prior to Classes Starting

You don’t want your kid’s brain feeling fatigued after only the first week of school. To combat this, build up their mental endurance starting a few weeks before school begins. This doesn’t have to be anything intense, but by increasing the amount of time they spend reading, writing, memorizing, and engaging their minds can help them strengthen their attention spans and mental capacity, which can ease the transition from summer days to sitting in classes. 

3. Get Organized

Make sure uniforms fit and are ready to go a week or two before. Get the necessary school supplies ready beforehand, with everything set to go for that first day back. Not only will seeing a backpack full of their necessary supplies help them mentally prepare, but it can also prevent the stress caused by last minute rushing. 

4. Encourage a Positive Mindset by Focusing on the Benefits

Students can often have a bleak mindset when returning to school because they miss the freedom of summer, but by reinforcing the importance of the role education will play in their life, you can help them see its necessity. While there are some who look forward to it, many kids would give all they have if it meant prolonging the end of summer a couple of weeks. However, you can help set the stage for how they see going back to school. Even if it may not be exciting for them, reinforcing its importance to their future can help them see that it is an essential step for them to grow as a person, instilling in them the irreplaceable role education plays in their development.

5. Offer Moral Support

You know your children better than anyone else, and thus likely know what they are looking forward to as well as what they are dreading with the return to school. Consider what aspects of school they struggled with the previous year, and figure out a plan for how to overcome whatever issues they may have faced. Knowing they have your understanding and support will help to ease their overall stress levels, and help them have a more positive outlook as they approach the new academic year. 

25 Fun Indoor games for Rainy Summer Days [No Gadgets Required]

CHARADE GAMES

1. Prop Charades 

This is similar to reverse charades in that only one person guesses while the rest of the team acts, however, in this version of the game, the actors use the guesser as a prop, and the guesser must try to guess what he is supposed to be. The team is not allowed to talk but they are allowed to touch the guesser and put him in a position that makes it easier for them to act out what the prop is. For example if the word is “Table,” the players may have the guesser get on his hands and knees and then they sit around the “table” and pretend to eat; or if the word is “screwdriver,” they may have the person stand up straight and then spin them around. 

2. Megazord Charades

Five actors are assigned a body part they are allowed to move (Right arm, left arm, right leg, left leg, and head), but the rest of their body must remain still. The guesser must then try to figure out what they are trying to act out.     

3. Blind Partner Charades

Both partners are given a charade that involves two people (i.e. a man catching a fish, a midwife delivering a baby, a knight fighting a dragon, two people boxing, etc.). The two actors are told which part they are to play, however, the two are not allowed to discuss anything with the other person they are acting with. Once both partners are blindfolded, the time starts and the other players try to guess what it is that they are acting out. 

4. Mirror Charades

In this style of play, the team who is guessing will have two players who will act out the charades. One person knows the word and will stand behind the guessing team where they cannot see him. The other person acting stands in front of the guessing team but does not know the word. The person who the team can see has to mirror the other actor who the team cannot see in order for them to be able to guess correctly. 

PICTIONARY GAMES

5. Chance Pictionary

This is the same as pictionary, except before you draw, you must roll a dice which will determine how you will draw. If you roll a 1, you draw with your right hand; if a 2, with your left hand; if a 3, with your feet; if a 4, then you draw blindfolded; if a 5, then with your mouth or neck; if a 6, you draw with a partner, but each partner is only allowed to touch the drawing utensil with one finger. 

6. Cover Tattoo

Everyone draws a picture of a simple object on a piece of paper  without anyone else seeing what it is, then, they pass it to their right. Then, everyone must try to find a creative way to cover up the picture that was passed to them by creating a new picture and incorporating the lines/drawing into their own work. Then, everyone passes it one more time to the right. Then, everyone must try to find the original picture within the picture that they are given within 30 seconds. If they get it correct, they get a point, but if not, the cover artist gets the point. 

7. In the Bag

One person is the artist, one is the describer, and the rest of the team is the guesser. The describer is given a paper bag with a random object in it. The describer feels the object and must whisper a physical description to the artist; the describer is only allowed to mention the physical attributes of the object and is not allowed to give any other information that could hint the artist as to what it is (i.e. if the object were a fork, the describer could say that it is “sharp at one end” and “is kinda flat,” but he could not say that “it is used for eating”). The artist tries to draw based on how the describer describes the object, as the rest of the team tries to guess what is being drawn/what is in the bag. 

8. Backdrawing Chain

Teams line up single file, and the person who is in the back is shown a simple picture of an object. The player must then use his finger to draw on the back of the person in front of them. This continues up the chain until it reaches the front. After a player uses their finger to draw the object on the person in the front of the line, that player must then replicate the drawing on a piece of paper. The team that is closest to the original wins.

SONG GAMES: 

9. One Word Song

A player picks a strip of paper from a bowl with a song title on it. The other team then gives that player a word that he must use to sing the song. Rather than using the song’s real lyrics, he must repeat this word over and over to the tune of the song. The team must then try to guess the song. 

10. Spontuneous

Random words are written on slips of paper and then put in a bowl. One person picks a piece of paper, reads it out loud, and the first player to sing a line from a song that contains that word gets a point for their team. The team with the most points when the bowl is empty is the winner. 

11. Song Chain 

Players sit in a circle and one person sings a line or two from a song, the following player must choose a keyword from that person’s song and then think of another song of which they will sing a couple lines. The players continue the chain until one of the players is unable to think of a song that could be added to the chain. 

12. Time Wager 

A player from each team wagers how many seconds it will take them to guess the song. The players can go back and forth outbidding each other, or it could be done by secretly writing down their bid. The team with the lowest wager wins the bid.  The song is then played for that length of time and if the player is able to guess correctly, they win the point. If they are not able to guess the song within that amount of time, the other team wins the point. 

WORD GAMES:

13. Bizarro Titles

 Bizarro Titles can work either doing opposites or synonyms. A person calls out the bizarro version of the movie and the first person to shout out the real version wins a point (i.e. “A dozen mad males” could be the film “12 Angry Men,” or “Humble and Unbiased” could be the book “Pride and Prejudice”).  

Sports Team Bizarro is another version of the game. One player will call out a city with a sports team, but will say the team name of another city. The other players then race to call out what the Bizarro (opposite) version of that team would be. For example, instead of saying the Chicago Bulls or Utah Jazz, the facilitator would call out “the Chicago Jazz” and then the players would see who could be the first to call out “the Utah Bulls.”

14. Faker

Strips of paper equal to the number of players are put into a bowl. The strips of paper all have the same word on it, except for one which is blank. Each player then picks a strip of paper. The players go around in a circle vaguely describing what is written on the paper. The players who know the word try to figure out who is the fake (the one who has the blank strip of paper), while the one who is the fake tries to blend in and also gives a description of the word despite not actually knowing what the word is. The players must not be too obvious with their description because if in the end they are able to guess who the fake is, the fake still has a chance to win if he guesses the correct answer. The fake wins if he is not found out, or if he guesses the word correctly. The other players win if they are able to correctly guess who the fake is (by majority vote), and keep the fake from knowing the word. 

15. Categories 

People sit in a circle and then a category is announced. Everyone then starts a 3-count beat of pat-pat-snap. On the third count (the snap) whoever’s turn it is must say something that fits within the category. Then it passes to the player next to them who must say something else that fits within that category on the next snap. Play continues around the circle until someone cannot think of something, does not say it within their beat, or they repeat a word that was already said; the player then gets a strike. After three strikes they are out of the game (or if you wish for everyone to continue to play, they could receive an consequence as an alternative to being out). Examples of categories could be “Flowers,” “Mammals,” “States of America”, “Three Letter Words,” “Disney Movies,” “Adjectives,” etc. 

16. Before & After 

One person starts by saying a common word pairing, compound word, or a phrase, and then the following person repeats what the previous person said and then uses the last word and creates a new word pairing. This continues until either someone is unable to remember the word chain or is unable to think of a new word to add. Here is an example:  Player 1: “Shooting Star.” Player 2:  “Shooting star light,” Player 3: “shooting star light saber,” Player 4: “Shooting star light saber tooth tiger,”  Player 5: “shooting star light saber tooth tiger claw.”   

Other Fun Games: 

17. Animal Standoff 

A circle is formed and animal names are put at each spot, starting with the strongest animal going down to the weakest animal. Each player sits at a spot and for that round their sign will be whatever animal is there. The player who is sitting in the spot of the strongest animal at the top of the food chain will be the one to start the round. All players will follow his lead to start a 3 beat pattern of pat-pat-clap. Once everyone has copied the pattern, the lead counts down by speaking “3-2-1” on each third beat (on the clap). Then begins the sign passing. 

The one starting first does their own animal sign on the third beat instead of clapping (pat-pat-sign, while the other players continue with pat-pat-clap). After performing their own sign, on the next third beat, the starter performs the sign of whoever he wishes to pass it to. Thus if the starter is a unicorn and wishes to pass it to the tiger, he will do pat-pat-unicorn (his own sign) and then pat-pat-tiger (the sign of who he wishes to pass it to). The passing continues as the beat gets increasingly faster until someone messes up. The person who messed up moves to the lowest spot on the food chain, and everyone who was below him shifts up a spot. The goal is to get to the top of the food chain. 

18. 7-Up

When you are it, you pass to either player beside you by tapping the shoulder of the side you want to pass to with your opposite hand (right hand to left shoulder to pass left or left hand to right shoulder to pass right). However, every seventh pass, instead of tapping your shoulder, you put your hand over your head with your fingers pointing in the direction you wish to pass (right hand over your head with your fingers pointing to the left to pass left or left hand over your head with your fingers pointing right to pass to the right).

Players must keep count in their head and are not allowed to say any numbers out loud. If they do, they lose that round. If a player taps his shoulder instead of pointing over his head on the seventh pass, then that player loses the round, or if a player points over his head if it is not yet the seventh pass, then that player loses the round.

19. Ostrich Dance

Two players each have a paper with a word on it taped to their back.  They then try to be the first one to read the word that is on the back of the other player, without letting the other player read the card that is on their back. The first player to shout out the word on the back of the other player is the winner. It helps to create a small circle as a boundary that the two players are not allowed to step outside of. 

20. Groupies

First, pick a category: celebrities, songs, animals, movies, etc. Everyone anonymously writes down something that fits in the chosen category and puts it in a bowl. The facilitator will collect the answers and then read them off to the rest of the players. Players must try to remember as best they can, as the reader is only allowed to read through the list twice. After the items have been read twice, choose a player from the circle to go first. He gets one guess to try to match the item to the person who wrote it. If he guesses correctly, the person who’s word he guessed joins his team and they get to guess again. When a person guesses wrong, it moves to the next player’s turn. If a player guesses correctly of someone who already has other people on his team, all of those people now join the group of the person who guessed correctly. The person who gets everyone to be on his/her team is the winner. 

21. Great Minds Think Alike

A category is announced and everyone writes down what they think will be the majority answer in the group. Once the category is said, no one is allowed to speak or make any non-verbal hints at what they may write. When everyone is finished writing their answer, go around the circle and have every player reveal their answer, keeping track of how many of each answer is said. A player gets a point for the total number of people who answered the same as them. However, if no other player answers the same, he gets 0 points for that round instead of 1. 

For example, if the category is “Things that are red,” and five people wrote down “apples,” then those people each get 5 points. If 3 people wrote “roses,” then those three people get 3 points each. However, if only one person wrote down “Mars,” that person gets 0 points because no one else wrote down the same thing. The person who has the most points once every player has gotten to choose a category is the winner.  

22. Memories 

Everyone writes down a story of something that has happened to them and puts their piece of paper in the bowl (if only a few people are playing, players could write down multiple stories in order to keep it from being quickly narrowed down). The player who goes first will select a piece of paper from the bowl and read it out loud for all to hear, and then she will try to guess whose it is. If she is correct, she keeps the paper and then picks out another one to try to guess. Once a player guesses wrong, the piece of paper (only the one which was guessed incorrectly) is put back into the bowl and the next player then picks from the bowl and guesses. Continue around the circle until there are no more papers. The person who has the most slips of paper at the end is the winner.  

23. Eye to Eye

Players stand in a close circle with their heads down. On the count of three everyone raises their head and has to look at another player. If the player a person is looking at is looking back at them, they are both out. Players are not allowed to look at the same player twice in a row. There may be rounds where more than one pair of players gets out, but there may be other rounds where no player gets out. The last one or two remaining players is the winner (depending on whether you are playing with odd or even numbers).

24. Wager

The game is played in rounds, with each round having a challenge that is posed. The team then wagers how well they could complete the challenge, typically by either amount or time. The team that offers the better proposal then tries to complete the challenge within the limits that they proposed. If they are successful, they win the point for that round, but if they fail to complete the challenge within the limits they proposed, the other team receives the point.  After a predetermined number of rounds, the team with the most points wins. 

For example if the challenge posed is “balancing the most books on ones head for 5 seconds,” each team would continue to increase the wager until one team withdraws (“3 books”, “4 books”, “5 books”, withdraw). The team then chooses a player to balance 5 books on their head for 5 seconds. If they succeed, they get the point, if not, they lose. Make a list of challenges (most push ups, longest headstand, quickest to write the alphabet, etc.) beforehand to keep the flow of the game moving.  

25. Wrong Number

Players get in groups of five and make a small circle. They then take turns pointing at each with a certain number of fingers. The person who they point at with the fingers must then say a number that is different from the number of fingers displayed, but it must still be between 1-5. Immediately, that player must then point to another player and point a different number of fingers at the next player who must then call out a different number and continue the process. Players are out if they  say the same number of fingers that was pointed at them, if they say the same amount of fingers that they will point, if the number of fingers they point is the same number that was pointed at them, or if they are not fast enough to pass it to the next person. Last player remaining wins. 

10 Outdoor Educational Games to Keep Your Kids Physically and Mentally Active

1. Spelling Races: 

Randomly spread out each letter of the alphabet around your yard, or if you are in a cul-de-sac you could draw them in chalk. The letters should be big to make them easy to find, but should be spread out and in no particular order. You will call out a word, and then the kids have to race to each letter to be the first to correctly spell the word by running to the letters in the right order. However, to make it more entertaining, rather than simply running, give the kids a way in which they have to move: crab walk, one-legged hops, tornado spin jumps, walking backwards, sideways shuffles, carioca, inchworm crawls, bunny hops, skipping, etc.  

2. Math Obstacle Course: 

Label the course obstacles with numbers 1-10. The course obstacles could be anything: running around a tree, doing a cartwheel, dizzy bat spinning, crawling through a tire swing, zig-zagging in-and-out of a line of rocks, walking across a plank of wood, balancing a book on their head as they touch their toes, doing jumping jacks, etc. Once each section of the course is established, give the children a piece of paper with 10 math problems. Each answer corresponds with how many times they must do that obstacle. For example, if the answer to question number two is 5, then they must do the second obstacle 5 times (i.e. do five cartwheels) before advancing to the next obstacle.  

3. Backyard Bananagrams: It’s the same concept of Backyard Scrabble, however, there’s a bit more running involved as kids race to collect letters from the middle when someone calls out “bananas.” You will need 144 pieces of paper (or paper plates, cardboard, pieces of posterboard, etc.), and write a letter on each one. For a breakdown of how many of each letter you’ll need, visit this blogspot; however, if you already have the game bananagrams, you can just use their tiles to save yourself the work of making bigger game pieces. The game is then played similar to regular bananagrams, except the players’ should be spaced a distance away from the pile of letters in the middle in order to make them run anytime someone calls out “Bananas!” 

4. Nature Scavenger Hunt Spelling:

Give the children a word to spell, they must find nature items whose first letter begins with a letter needed for the word. For example if the word is SOAP, they could bring a Stone, Oats (or an Orange-colored flower or water to represent the Ocean to make it simpler for younger kids), Acorn, and a Petal. 

5. War of Numbers: Two teams line up across from each other in a similar fashion to red rover, however, rather than holding hands, their feet should be spread apart and touching the feet of their teammates next to them. Players from each team take turns kicking a ball, trying to make it in between the spread legs of a player from the other team. If the ball goes through a player's legs, that player must then leave their team and join the other team, also like red rover. However, to give it a mathematical twist, before a player kicks the ball, the opposing team gives him a math problem, and each player from the team is assigned a number (or to make it simpler, they are numbered from left to right in ascending order, 1, 2, 3, etc.). The player must then kick it through the legs of the player that would be the right answer. Example: Team 2 gives a math problem like 63 divided by 9, then Team 1’s kicker for that round would try to kick the ball through the 7th player’s legs.

6. Bombs Away: True or False

Whether jumping into a pool, out of a swing, through a slip-n-slide or on a trampoline, this game is more fun with a good jump. A question is asked by the thrower, then the jumper gets ready to jump. When the thrower throws the ball, he says an answer to his own question. The jumper then must decide in air if the answer is true or false. If it is true they must catch the ball, if it is false they must try to avoid the ball.  

7. Exercise SpellingAssign an exercise to each letter of the alphabet. For example: A- Jumping Jacks, B - horizontal line jumps, C - Jump squats,  D - High Knee Running (in place), E- push ups, etc. These will likely need to be written out so kids can easily reference them. Then, choose the difficulty. When you give them a word to do an exercise to, will they do each exercise a certain amount of times (3 times? 5 times? 10 times?) or for a certain amount of time (10 seconds? 15 seconds? 30 seconds?). Once all the rules are in place, have kids take turns resting a round. The player who rests for that round is also the one who announces the word the others have to exercise to; they may try to choose long words in order to give themselves more time to rest (and to make it harder for the other participants). If the player who announced the word recognizes a player is spelling a word wrong (by doing the wrong exercise), they can call out that player and make them start spelling the word over again. 

8. Measurement Treasure Hunting

Clues are hidden across the playing field at certain markers, and then the treasure hunting team is told where their starting post is (a stick, rock, or other item which can be seen from a distance). The team is given a tape measure and a circle (paper or cardboard) which has marked 0°-360° in increments of 15° (or a protractor that is big enough to easily read). Each marker has the distance and angle of where to find the next marker, which will reveal the next set of directions. The 0/360° line on the circle should always point towards the starting post to serve as a reference for when finding the next destination. 

To add more math, you could make the kids solve math problems to find the distance and angle. Or to add more fun, each marker could also contain a letter, which after collecting all the letters from all the markers, they must unscramble to reveal the secret word to get the prize.

9. Memory Dance

All the players get in a circle and choose one who will start. That player does one dance move and then stops. The player to their right must then copy the previous person’s dance and then add one more dance move. It then moves to the next player who must do all the previous dance moves and add then add another. It continues to go around the circle until players get out by not being able to remember all the steps. 

10. (Simplified) King of Clubs: Math Version

In this game, players split into two teams and are both given a base at opposite ends of the playing field; the shape and obstacles of the field do not matter, so long as there is enough space for running. You will need cards with math problems on them, with the answers ranging from 1-12. The winner of the game is whoever has the most points (based on the answers to the math problems) at the end of the game. Each team starts with 3 more cards than there are players on their team, and the two teams should start with cards that equal the answers of the other team (so that both teams start with equal points). Each player than chooses a card from their teams deck. Every player must always carry only one card.  After each team has their cards, the other cards are spread out randomly throughout the playing field face down. Once the game starts, players try to win cards which they can do one of two ways: get a card from another player or pick up the random cards off the ground. This is how to do so: 

To get a card from another player, a player from one team can tag a player from another team, and the player with the higher card gets to keep the opposing players card (it does not matter who tagged who, only who has the higher card). The player who won the card puts it back on the team's deck at their base and then continues to play; the player who lost their card must go take a new card from their team’s deck and continue playing

In order to pick up the cards on the ground, the player's card must be lower than the card on the ground. If it is lower, then the player can pick it up and take it back to his team’s deck. Thus a team’s strategy may be to have a set of taggers who carry higher cards to try to tag the other team and a set of seekers who carry lower cards so that they can pick up the cards on the ground. The team who has more total points at the end of 5 minutes is the winner. 

If a team’s deck runs too low and the team has less cards than players, those players without cards must wait until other players on their team win cards. The out players can then rejoin the game. If a team loses all of its cards before the five minutes is up, then the other team wins.

Bonus 11.) Yarn MazeYarn is strung in a maze all throughout a yard, and at the end is a prize. However, in order for the players to get to the prize, they must follow the right yarn. Every 20 ft (or less depending on your environment) a question is attached to the yarn before the yarn splits off into two separate directions. Each direction has an answer to the question. If they choose the correct answer, the yarn will lead them to the next question, but if they follow the yarn that had the wrong answer attached, then it will lead them to a dead end. Can your players reach the prize?

A List of Reading Lists: Over 100 Summer Reading Ideas for Junior High Students

There are plenty of great websites and book lists where you’re sure to find a story your kids will enjoy diving into. Of course, we recommend parents review books before their children read them to know what ideas your kids may be presented with. When a child is reading a book with a serious topic, it could be helpful to have a parent or trusted adult to help make sense of something they may find confusing or morally conflicting. However, we don’t always have the time to read through everything our kids may want to read. Thankfully, there are websites like Common Sense Media which review books and other media, giving specifics as to any sensitive content the book may contain (however, it is a paid site, but does give a few free trials). 

Because every family and every child is different, we can’t guarantee you’ll approve of everything on these lists, but hopefully you’ll be able to find something that is appropriate for your junior high students on these lists, which are ordered according to when the books were published. 

FANTASY

1. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll - 1865)

2. The Wizard of Oz (L. Frank Baum - 1900) 

3. The Chronicles of Narnia (C.S. Lewis - 1950)

4. Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien - 1954)

5. The Last Unicorn (Peter S. Beagle - 1968)

6. A Wizard of Earthsea (Ursula K. Le Guin - 1968)

7. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (Robert C. O'Brien - 1971)

8. The Princess Bride (William Goldman - 1973) 

9. The Neverending Story (Michael Ende - 1979)

10. The Phantom Tollbooth (Norton Juster - 1982)

11. Redwall (Brian Jacques - 1986)

12. Howl’s Moving Castle (Diana Wynne Jones - 1986)

13. Stardust (Neil Gaiman - 1999)

14. Inkheart (Cornelia Funke - 2003)

15. Binti (Nnedi Okorafor – 2015)

16. Beasts Made of Night (Tochi Onyebuchi - 2017)

17. The Girl who Drank the Moon (Kelly Barnhill -2016)

18. Children of Blood and Bone (Tomi Adeyemi - 2018) 

19. Dragon Pearl (Yoon Ha Lee - 2019)

20. Amari and the Night Brothers (B. B. Alston - 2021)

SCIENCE FICTION / DYSTOPIAN:

1. The Time Machine (H. G. Wells - 1895)

2. War of the Worlds (H. G. Wells - 1898)

3. Out of the Silent Planet (C.S. Lewis - 1938)

4. A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L'Engle - 1962)

5. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card - 1985)

6. The Giver (Lois Lowry -1993)

7. Panda Ray (Michael Kandel - 1996)

8. House of the Scorpion (Nancy Farmer - 2002)

9. The City of Ember (Jeanne DuPrau - 2003)

10. Interworld (Neil Gaiman, Michael Reeves - 2007)

11. The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins - 2008)

12. When You Reach Me (Rebecca Stead - 2009) 

13. Legend (Marie Lu - 2011)

14. Bloom (Kenneth Oppel - 2020)

ANIMALS:

1. Black Beauty (Anna Sewell - 1877)

2. Call of the Wild (Jack London - 1903)

3. White Fang (Jack London - 1906)

4. The Wind in the WIllows (Kenneth Grahame - 1908)

5. Where the Red Fern Grows (Wilson Rawls - 1961)

6. Animal Farm (George Orwell - 1945) 

7. My Side of the Mountain (Jean Craighead George - 1959) 

8. Island of the Blue Dolphins (Scott O'Dell - 1960)

9. Julie of the Wolves (Jean Craighead George - 1972)

10. Watership Down (Richard Adams - 1972)

11. Shiloh (Phyllis Reynolds Naylor - 1991)

12. Because of Winn Dixie (Kate DiCamillo - 2000)

13. Life of Pi (Yann Martel - 2001) 

14. Hoot (Carl Hiaasen - 2002)

15. Pax (Sara Pennypacker - 2016)

SPORTS: 

1. Chariots of Fire (William John Weatherby - 1982)

2. Tangerine (Edward Bloor - 1997)

3. Heat (Mike Lupica - 2007)

4. The Crossover (Kwame Alexander - 2014)

5. Ghost (Jason Reynolds - 2016)

6. The Distance to Home (Jenn Bishop - 2016)

7. Left Out (Tim Green - 2016)

8. Up for Air (Laurie Morrison - 2019)

DRAMA:

1. Finding Perfect (Elly Swartz - 2016)

2. The Ethan I was Before (Ali Standish - 2017)

3. The Someday Birds (Sally J. Pla - 2017)

4. The Science of Breakable Things (Tae Keller - 2018)

5. Genesis Begins Again (Alicia D. Williams - 2019)

6. The Sea in Winter (Christine Day - 2019)

7. 5 Things About Ava Andrews (Margaret Dilloway - 2020)

Graphic Novels: 

1. Smile (Raina Telgemeier - 2010)

2. Rapunzel’s Revenge (Dean Hale, Shannon Hale - 2011)

3. El Deafo (Cece Bell - 2014)

4. Pashmina (Nidhi Chanani - 2017) 

5. New Kid (Jerry Craft - 2019)

Historical Fiction:

1. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott - 1868)

2. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith - 1943)

3. Cry, The Beloved Country (Alan Paton - 1948)

4. One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel García Márquez - 1967)

5. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Mildred D. Taylor - 1976)

6. The Midwife’s Apprentice (Karen Cushman - 1991)

7. Esperanza Rising (Pam Muñoz Ryan - 2000)

8. Fever 1793 (Laurie Halse Anderson - 2000)

9. The Book Thief (Markus Zusak - 2005)

10. All the Light we Cannot See (Anthony Doerr - 2014)

11. Wolf Hollow (Lauren Wolk - 2016)

12. Refugee (Alan Gratz - 2017) 

13. The Night Diary (Veera Hiranandani - 2018)

14. The Weight of Our Sky (Hanna Alkaf - 2019)

15. We are Not Free (Traci Chee - 2020)

16. Angel of Greenwood (Randi Pink - 2021)

ADVENTURE / MYSTERY:  

1. The House of Dies Drear (Virginia Hamilton - 1968)

2. The Westing Game (Ellen Raskin - 1978)

3. Zora & Me (T.R. Simon, Victoria Bond - 2010)

4. Vanished (Sheela Chari - 2011 )

5. Greenglass House (Kate Milford - 2014)

6. The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place (Julie Berry - 2014)

7. Skink - No Surrender (Carol Hiaasen - 2014)

8. The Great Greene Heist (Varian Johnson -2014)

9. Footer Davis is Probably Crazy (Susan Vaught - 2015)

10. Framed! (James Ponti - 2016)

11. OCDaniel (Wesley King - 2016) 

12. The Emperor’s Riddle (Kat Zhang - 2017)

13. When You Look Like Us (Pamela N. Harris - 2021)

BIOGRAPHIES / AUTOBIOGRAPHIES1. I know why the caged bird sings (Maya Angelou - 1969)

2. Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to Get Back on the Board (Bethany Hamilton, Rick Bundschuh, Sheryl Berk - 2004)

3. March: Book One (John Lewis and Andrew Aydin - 2013)

4. A Long Way from Home (Saroo Brierley, Larry Buttrose - 2013)

5. Brown Girl Dreaming (Jacqueline Woodson - 2014)

6. Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom: My Story of the 1965 Selma Voting Rights March (Lynda Blackmon Lowery - 2015)

7. The Plot to Kill Hitler: Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Spy, Unlikely Hero (Patricia McCormick - 2016)

8. Becoming Kareem: Growing Up On and Off the Court (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Raymond Obstfeld -2017)

9. Facing Frederick: The Life of Frederick Douglass, a Monumental American Man (Tonya Bolden - 2018)

10. Child of the Dream (Memoir of 1963) (Sharon Robinson -2019)

MORE PLACES TO SEARCH FOR BOOKS

If you’re interested in looking for more books, there are a number of websites and blogs that will provide you with plenty of reading suggestions. Some sites allow you to search by book lists, which makes finding something your kids will like all the more easy. Here are some websites that either list books. 

1. Good Reads 

2. Book Riot

3. Common Sense Media ($3/month)

4. Compass Book Ratings

5. Wikipedia: Lists of Books

6. Time’s best lists (such as “The 100 Best YA Books of All Time”)

7. Book Awards (such as Newberry’s yearly Award)

8. Mom Loves Best

9. Mary Hanna Wilson

10. The Best Sci Fi Books