WELCOME, WELCOME, WELCOME!
You've found the HEART of our work for children and homeschooling familes!

Like a healthy body, a healthy mind needs good food!
A child needs books that engage his mind, inspire his imagination, and thrill his heart,
The best books are written by authors who love their subjects and love their readers.

"Oh, well, at least she's reading," isn't spoken here.
(If that's the best we can say, maybe she should be climbing a tree instead.
Or dressing her doll. Or building a village from blocks. Or helping a neighbor.)

This site is ALL FREE TO YOU with over 100 lists of great books for children.
I'm Valerie Jacobsen. I'm a mom of eleven children (8 girls and 3 boys) and a lifelong book lover.
I review the books.

I've been selling books to homeschoolers online since May, 1995. In March 2006, my husband Paul came home to work with me. We now work together with our oldest four children as full-time booksellers. Our best books for children and families are at ValeriesLivingBooks.com. Our full inventory (including rare books and specialty non-fiction) is at JacobsenBooks.com.

The following links tell you all about our favorite books.

Stop by again soon. This list is always growing.

• NEW Adventure Series by Willard Price
• NEW Albert Marrin Histories
• Alice Crew Gall and Fleming H. Crew, nature novels
• All About Books, published by Random House
• America, Great Crises in Our History Told by its Makers
• American Heritage Junior Library
• American Heritage Series by Aladdin Books
• Anna Pistorius' Nature Books
• Art for Children by Ernest Raboff
• NEW Biographies for Young Readers by Harry James Albus
• The Book of Knowledge,
• The Book of Life by Newton Marshall Hall and Irving Francis Wood
• NEW Charles L. Ripper's Nature Books
• The Children's Hour, A Living Anthology
• Christian Reading for the Home
• Clara Ingram Judson's historical biographies
• NEW Collecting Nature Books by Hussey & Pessino
• Colonial American Craftsmen
• Considering God's Creation--review coming!
• Cornerstones of Freedom series
• David Macaulay's books
• Day Book series
• Dorothy Childs Hogner's nature stories
• NEW Early Culture Series
• Educator Classic Library
• Edwin Tunis' social history books
• NEW Eva March Tappan's The World's Story
• Exploring Nature with Your Child by Dorothy Shuttlesworth--review coming
• Frontiers of America series
• G. A. Henty's historical fiction
• Garrard History Series Books
• Genevieve Foster's biographies and historical books
• George F. Mason's nature books Giant Landmark Books
• NEW Gladys Conklin's Nature Books
• Golden Universal History of the World
• Great Musicians Series written by Opal Wheeler and Sybil Deucher
• History through the Ages
• Holling Clancy Holling's books
• Hope Chest Legacy
• Horizon Caravel Books
• Immortals of Mankind Series
• Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire
• The Jacobsen Children's List of Superior Picture Books
• NEW Jean Lee Latham's Biographies
• Kingdom Songs--an outstanding resource for ancient history!
• Land of the Free series Landmark and World Landmark Books
• Living Principles of America, Living History Audio Collection
• Lord's Beacon Lights of History
• Lord's Points of History, a history catechism
• Mable Pyne's books
• Makers of History, Makers of American History, and others by Jacob Abbott and John S. C. Abbott
• Margaret Waring Buck's nature books
• Marguerite de Angeli--living history and more
• NEW Marguerite Henry's Horse (and Other) Stories
• Marguerite Vance's historical biographies
• Math-U-See Maud and Miska Petersham's books
• Mayflower Series for Girls/Pilgrim Series for Boys
• Messner Biographies
• My Book House, edited by Olive Beaupre Miller
• Nest Videos for Bible history and world and American history
• North Star series Olive Earle's nature books
• NEW Our Favorite Fiction--a work in progress
• The Picture Story.... geography series by McKay
• A Picturesque Tale of Progress by Olive Beaupre Miller
• Piper Books Poetry for Young People
• Popular Mechanics Career Books
• NEW Really Truly Stories by Sadyebeth and Anson Lowitz
• Reba Paeff Mirsky's Composer Biographies
• NEW Richard Halliburton's Complete Book of Marvels
• NEW Robert McClung's Nature Stories
• Ronald Syme's historical biographies
• Ruth Brindze's books
• NEW Science Discovery Books
• Signature Series, published by Grossett and Dunlap
• Sod House Adventure by Bonnie Bess Worline--review coming
• Source Readers in American History
• The Standard Treasury of the World's Great Paintings--review coming
• The Thorndike Century Junior Dictionary or The Thorndike-Barnhardt Junior Dictionary
• Thy Word Creations, Effortless Bible Memorization
  The above books and tapes are one of the best investments I have ever made! If you would love to hear your children quoting and singing long passages of Scripture, you will not regret your purchase.
• Trade Routes Series, edited by Edward Sammis
• True Books
• TruthQuest History--wonderful, Biblically-based guides help families explore history using Living Books!
• Using a dollhouse to learn crafts
• Vintage Childcraft
• The Wall Chart of World History by Edward Hull
• We Were There.... books, published by Grossett and Dunlap
• Winston Adventure Books
• The World's Great Events by Collier, review coming
• The "Young Biographies"
• Young Math series
• Young People's Pilgrim's Progress, review coming
• Young People's Story of Our Heritage by V. M. Hillyer and E. G. Huey
• with more to come....

Again, before you leave us, we'd love it if you'd take a look at ValeriesLivingBooks.com.
EAGER READERS WANTED!

I will always consider outstanding resources for inclusion on these pages.
Please contact me with your suggestions!

Please consider reading my essay,
"Book Lists:  Handle with Care"

• 1000 Good Books ListBooks Children Love by Elizabeth Wilson (print resource)The Children's Reading by Frances Jenkins Olcott (print resource)
  This book is long out-of-print, but I recommend reading it.  It includes a thought-provoking and thorough discussion of the use of children's literature in the Christian home as well as excellent book lists!
• Five in a Row
• Honey for a Child's Heart (print resource)

I do not collect Childhood of Famous Americans for my children, but have a list available for you as a courtesy. Many homeschoolers enjoy this old series. (They are mostly fictionalized and provide very little information regarding the known achievements of the characters that they cover, but they are clean, fun reading for kids.)

Caring for a Collection:

While you are visiting my pages, be sure to see my Resources for Book Collectors for links on cleaning, repairing, evaluating, storing, and USING collectible books.

You are also welcome to view my description of Organizing a Christian Homeschool Library.