TIP #7: Read Living Books - Beginner Guide to Charlotte Mason

One of the first Charlotte Mason philosophies that I learned about was the idea of living books. A living book is generally defined as a book which tells a heartfelt story about a particular topic, often told from first-hand experience or from dedicated research and a genuine love for the topic. It could be a biography, or a fictional story based in a particular place or time period, or a non-fiction book that tells the author’s experiences and findings.

Charlotte Mason emphasised the importance of using living books to teach your child, rather than books co-authored by multiple authors that just summarise dry facts. When a book evokes emotions and paints a beautiful picture of the subject, it touches your heart and allows you to really connect with what you are learning about.

Sometimes it’s easiest to know what is NOT a living book.

A living book is not a textbook. It is not an encyclopedia. It is not a non-fiction book with nuggets of information on every page without any storyline weaving those nuggets together. It’s the story around the facts that is important and allows your child to narrate the text back to you after reading a short piece. Textbooks are notoriously difficult to narrate, because there are just too many facts packed into a short section of text.

There are several great resources online where you can find lists of living books on various topics. Below are just a few of the resources I have used:

https://ourjourneywestward.com/living-literature-booklists/

https://apps.simplycharlottemason.com/resources

http://historybookbybook.com/Main_Page