The Free Library

Core Knowledge Foundation

History & Geography

Find read alouds and titles for independent reading that perfectly match the history and geography topics covered in the Core Knowledge curriculum. Explore books about ancient civilizations, world cultures, explorers, important events, and fascinating places that deepen children’s understanding beyond the textbook. These carefully chosen titles make excellent companion reads for CK history units.

Showing 37 books

Abraham Lincoln

Voices in History

History & Geography, Language Arts

Abraham Lincoln 🎧

Defender of a Nation

Abraham Lincoln grew up to become the 16th president of the United States. He was born into a humble background, and as a boy had...

By Kathryn Erskine

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Alexander Graham Bell

Voices in History

History & Geography

Alexander Graham Bell

Voice of the Future

From the moment Alexander Graham Bell was born, communication was at the center of life: his father was a speech instructor, and his mother was...

By Katy S. Duffield

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Alexander Hamilton

Voices in History

History & Geography, Language Arts

Alexander Hamilton

Building a Nation

You might know Alexander Hamilton as a Founding Father of America. But did you know he was born on a tropical island? Did you know...

By Anne Marie Pace

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Anne Hutchinson

Voices in History

History & Geography, Language Arts

Anne Hutchinson

Banished

Anne Hutchinson and her family sailed across a vast ocean in search of a new life in the English Colonies of North America. Their life...

By Anne Marie Pace

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Benjamin Banneker

Voices in History

History & Geography

Benjamin Banneker

A Colonial Genius Shining in the Darkness

Born in Maryland in the 1700s, Benjamin Banneker lived an extraordinary life. As an African American, he faced racial prejudice. But despite the times in...

By Dionna L. Mann

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Benjamin Franklin

Voices in History

History & Geography, Language Arts, Science

Benjamin Franklin

Let the Experiment Be Made

Ben Franklin’s extraordinary life still inspires us today. As a young man he sought adventure, became a skilled and successful printer, an inventor, an author,...

By Fran Cannon Slayton

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Booker T Washington

Voices in History

History & Geography

Booker T Washington

Turning Nothing Good into Something Fine

Little Booker’s life began without a last name, without a father, and without freedom. His first years were spent in slavery, laboring from the age...

By Dionna L. Mann

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The Carlisle School

Adventures in History

History & Geography, Language Arts

The Carlisle School

The Tearing Away

Eleven-year-old Alice Folsom must be brave. She has no choice. Not only for her grandmother’s sake, but now for the sake of her newly adopted...

By E. A. Hale

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Chief Standing Bear

Voices in History

History & Geography, Language Arts

Chief Standing Bear

Fight for His Homeland

Standing Bear grew up where the Niobrara and Missouri rivers meet. He and his Ponca tribe members fished and hunted, sang and danced, and watched...

By Patricia Morris Buckley

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Cleopatra

Voices in History

History & Geography, Language Arts

Cleopatra

The Goddess Queen

Cleopatra was born into the Greek ruling family of Ancient Egypt. Her world was one of strength, war, and men—and Cleopatra was eager to leave...

By Beth Kephart

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Collection of Tales from Latin America and the Caribbean

Collection of Tales

History & Geography, Language Arts

Collection of Tales from Latin America and the Caribbean

Thousands of years before the first ships carrying Europeans appeared on the horizon, South and Central America, as well as the Caribbean, were lands already...

By Silvia López

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Dolores Huerta

Voices in History

History & Geography, Language Arts

Dolores Huerta

Songs of Justice

As a child, Dolores Huerta loved to sing. As an adult, she continued to raise her voice—speaking, chanting, and singing—for the rights of farm workers...

By Beth Kephart

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