Our Medieval Fiction Reading List {Middle School}

This year we’ll be focusing on medieval history. For the past several months I’ve been flexing my librarian muscles, reading tons of books, and I finally have something to show for it! There are so very many books that did not make my cut. So many.

These novels all go along with our history reading, approx 400AD to 1400. We will use Mystery of History volume 2 as our spine. We have read Story of the World volume 2 twice, both 4 and 8 years ago (this is astonishing to me that we’ve been homeschooling long enough that we are going through the 4 year history cycle for a third time now!).

We’ll be traveling to the silk road and ancient Korea, meeting Alfred the Great and vikings, reimagining King Arthur’s tales and lords & castles.

Below are the titles we are planning to read, many with our co-op book club, and several as planned audiobooks:

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon associate, I earn a commission on eligible purchases.

• Mice of the Round Table (for an all-grades family book club)
• Galahad & The Grail (we will listen to this on audio (read by the author), as epic poetry ought to be experienced)
• The Dragon & the Raven (truly not sure how this one will go)
• The Squire’s Tale (this one is surprisingly funny and I enjoyed the author’s note as a way of talking about writing of Arthurian legends)
• The Nine Moons of Han Yu and Luli (maybe my favorite in the whole list. LOVE Karina Yan Glaser and this dual timeline story is *chef’s kiss*)
• Winterfrost (this is technically not medieval; we are reading it near Christmastime as a tie-in to our geography study of the region. However, the folklore does date back possibly to this time period. Not everything has to be perfect, right?)
• The Dark is Rising (yes, book 2. We haven’t read book 1. This will be our family read aloud leading up to Christmas as it takes place from 12/20 through Twelfth Night)
• Robin Hood (probably this version)
• The False Prince (can’t wait for them to read this! I want to talk about it with someone!)
• The Queen’s Granddaughter (who knew there’s a historical fiction novel about Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine’s granddaughter! Some nice layers of discussion in this one!)
• Ranger’s Apprentice: The Ruins of Gorlan (enjoyed this more than I expected. Also has some fantasy elements which I know my boys will enjoy.)
• A Single Shard (a classic! They loved Linda Sue Park’s Archer’s Quest for ancient history.)
• The Many Assassinations of Samir, Seller of Dreams (this one just needs to be talked about. Might be a touch abstruse but I’m looking forward to reading this together as a read aloud)

Possibilities if we have time:

• Crispin: The Cross of Lead (didn’t make the book club cut because of gore)
• The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England (an adult novel, not kids/YA. Nothing concerning in content, but there’s some mild language. I really enjoyed the “white room story” or amnesiac MC especially since our whole family read Project Hail Mary this summer. Sanderson discusses PHM in his postscript, too!)
• Eighth Day (enjoyed this one! It definitely helps to have some understanding of Arthurian Legends to understand the plot.)
• The Mad Wolf’s Daughter (feels a lot more middle grade, maybe too predictable, but a solid hero’s journey)
• Sir Gawain & the Green Knight (still not sure of version! My kids own the Tolkien version as part of a compilation.)
• The Beatryce Prophecy (not formally medieval but has the spirit of the time, and it’s a fun story)
• If we hadn’t already read it, I would include The Door in the Wall (note to self: read this to the youngest when she’s ready)

I’ll report back with the kids’ reactions. Hopefully this isn’t another starry-eyed August dream. Lots of wonderful adventures to be had in these pages!