270+ Wonderful Faith & Character Building Books for Homeschoolers (1)

Faith and character-building books are powerful tools that can easily fit into your children’s daily education.

I believe there is more to education than just academic success and home education includes parenting and discipleship.

Giving our children a good education is important, but a strong faith foundation and good godly character are the most important gifts parents can give to their children.

In a time of rapidly spiritual and moral decline, I believe a strong faith and character should be a priority in our home education.

As parents we have the privilege to partner with God to mold and shape the heart and character of our children.

Look on education as something between the child’s soul and God. Modern Education tends to look on it as something between the child’s brain and the standardized test.

Charlotte Mason

What is education?

There is much more to education than just filling the brain with knowledge.

Education is more than just academics. Just as a child is made of a body, soul, spirit, and mind, we must educate her as a whole, not just in part.

Education involves parenting, character training, and discipleship.

Charlotte Mason believed that living books and real-life experience were the best forms of education

The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

What are living books?

Living books are an alternative to boring textbooks. They include fiction and non-fiction literature written by an author with a talent for bringing the story alive and engaging children’s ideas and imagination, so they are able to better understand and retain the information they learn.

And all the time we have books, books teeming with ideas fresh from the minds of thinkers upon every subject to which we can wish to introduce children.

Charlotte Mason

Why adding faith and character-building books to your homeschool?

Children naturally love captivating stories!

  • Stories are the way humans learn. A good story captures our attention and transports us into the world of the characters it helps us to experience similar emotional responses as the characters in the story.
  • Stories are a crucial part of a child’s development.
  • Stories influence our behavior and even shape our culture.
  • Stories are effective in influencing the way our children think and behave.

Stories teach by example in a way that children can easily and fully understand.

Mission Stories: Faith Lessons from George Muller

Character Before Academics

Having good Character qualities is the foundation not only for academic learning but also for success in relationships, career, and even in finances. After all, who wants to have a relationship or do business with someone that is not honest and trustworthy?

Unfortunately, good character traits don’t magically appear overnight—they take practice, patience and persistence.

It takes work!

It is a daily task for the parents, and it takes intentional effort to teach our children the values of our beliefs and good godly character.

“Every day, every hour, the parents are either passively or actively forming those habits in their children upon which, more than upon anything else, future character and conduct depend…”

Charlotte Mason

Godly character is a product of daily teaching and cultivating in our children good habits.

We must make every effort to give our children an education that qualifies them for a godly life rather than one to simply prepare them for earning a living.

I highly recommend you to read Formation Of Character: Volume V of Charlotte Mason’s Original Homeschooling Series.

4 Easy Way to Add Faith and Character Building Books into Your Family Daily Routine

1 – Morning Basket

Having a morning basket with great faith and character building books is a great way to start the day!

You can learn what a morning basket is and how to create one here.

We usually keep 2-3 great books and biographies in our morning basket each month.

We start our day with a devotional, prayer, a read aloud and memory work. It’s a nice way to wake up our brains and get the atmosphere settle for our homeschool day.

2 – Family Read Aloud

Anytime of the day can be a good time to read books cuddling together! Mom does not need to read it all aloud by herself! Have the children take turns reading a page or a chapter.

To make reading aloud time more exciting, bake some cookies, make some hot chocolate or lemonade to drink.

My children like to act and make funny voices when they read aloud, that does keep everyone engaged. try that!

3 – Bedtime Stories

Bedtime stories are a great way to involve daddy with reading and getting inspired before bedtime prayer.

For faith-building, I highly recommend reading missionary stories. We like to make sure that God is the first and last thing in our minds.

4 – Audiobooks

Audiobooks are not cheating! They are as effective as reading aloud ourselves. Audiobooks can be life-saving for busy moms too.

We listen to audiobooks while doing chores, driving back and forth into town for grocery shopping or for doctors’ appointments, while building with LEGO, drawing, painting, or eating meals.

Pick a way that works best for your family and start enjoying reading or listening to more books together!

Top Faith & Character Building Books for Homeschoolers:

1. A Lion to Guard Us by Clyde Robert Bulla
2. A Penny’s Worth of Character by Jesse Stuart
3. A Tree for Peter by Kate Seredy
4. Aesop Fables
5. All-of-a-kind Family by Sydney Taylor
6. Anna and Solomon by Elaine Snyder
7. Beautiful Girlhood by Karen Andreola
8. Black Beauty (Anna Sewell)
9. Books by Isabella Alden (pen name Pansy)
10. Buried in the Snow by Franz Hoffmann
11. By the Shores of Silver Lake by  Laura Ingalls Wilder
12. Call it Courage by Armstrong Perry
13. Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling
14. Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham
15. Charlie’s Choice by M. L. Nesbitt
16. Charlotte’s Web by E. B White
17. Childhood of Famous Americans Series
18. Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes
19. Cornerstones of Freedom Series
20. Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris
21. Elsie Dinsmore Series
22. Ester Reid by Isabella Alden
23. Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder
24. Five Children and It by E. Nesbit
25. Five Little Peppers Series 
26. G. A. Henty Series (Historical Fiction)
27. Gifted Hands: A Ben Carson Story by Gregg Lewis and Deborah Shaw Lewis
28. Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes
29. Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
30. Hedge of Thorns by Sherwood
31. Heidi by Johanna Spyri
32. Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary
33. Holes by Louis Sachar
34. Homer Price by Robert McCloskey
35. Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns to Listen by Howard Binkow
36. I Did It, I’m Sorry! by Caralyn Buehner
37. In His Steps by Charles M. Sheldon
38. Irena Sendler and the Children of the Warsaw Ghetto by Susan Goldman Rubin
39. It Could Always Be Worse: A Yiddish Folk Tale by Margot Zemach
40. Just Do Something by
41. Kingdom Series by Chuck Black
42. Lamplighter Books Series
43. Landmark Books Series
44. Little Men by Louisa May Alcott
45. Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
46. Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
47. Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
48. Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
49. Mary Poppins by Dr. P. L. Travers
50. Mountains of Spices by Hannah Hurnard
51. Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard Atwater
52. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, a series by Betty MacDonald,
53. My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
54. Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
55. On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder
56. Owls in the Family by Farley Mowat
57. Passage to Freedom by Ken Mochizuki
58. Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
59. Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
60. Please Say Please by Margery Cuyler
61. Pollyanna (book) (Audiobook available from Raising Real Men))
62. Rascal by Sterling North
63. Redwall by Brian Jacques
64. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel DeFoe
65. Sarah, Plain and Tall by  Patricia MacLachlan
66. Sir Knight of the Splendid Way by W.E. Cule
67. Sir Malcom and the Missing Prince by Sidney Baldwin
69. Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss
70. Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner
71. Sugar Creek Gang Series by Paul Hutchens
72. Teddy’s Button by Amy LeFeuvre
73. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
74. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
75. The Battle by A.L.O.E.
76. The Beatinest Boy by Jesse Stuart
77. The Chestry Oak by Kate Seredy
78. The Courage of Sarah Noble by  Alice Dalgliesh
79. The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be by Farley Mowat
80. The Empty Pot by Demi
81. The Enchanted Castle by E. Nesbit
82. The Family Under the Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson
83. The Father Brown Reader by Nancy Carpentier Brown
84. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
85. The Good Master by Kate Seredy
86. The Green Ember by S. D. Smith
87. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
88. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
89. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
90. The Lord of the Rings Series by J.R.R. Tolkien
91. The Narnia Series by C.S. Lewis
92. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
93. The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain
94. The Railway Children by E. Nesbit
95. The Remarkable Christmas of the Cobbler’s Sons by Ruth Sawyer
96. The Rightful Owner by Jesse Stuart
97. The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy
98. The Story of the Treasure Seekers by E. Nesbit
99. The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss
100. The Terrestria Chronicles Series by Ed Dunlop
101. The Toothpaste Millionaire by Jean Merrill
103. The White Stag by Kate Seredy
104. The Wonderful O by James Thurber
105. The First Four Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder
106. The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom with John Sherrill
107. The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder
108. The Tale of Peter Rabbit by  Beatrix Potter
109. The Wemmicks Series by Max Lucado
110. These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder
111. Three Bears in a Boat by David Soman
112. Thy Friend, Obadiah by Brinton Turkle
113. Tip Lewis and His Lamp by Isabella Alden
114. True North: A Novel of the Underground Railroad by Kathryn Lasky
115. Trumpet of the Swan by E. B. White
116. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
117. White Gypsy by Anette Lyster
118. Wisdom and The Millers Series

270+ Wonderful Faith & Character Building Books for Homeschoolers FB

American History Character-Building Biographies

  1. Christopher Columbus: Across the Ocean Sea
  2. John Smith: A Foothold in the New World
  3. William Bradford: Plymouth’s Rock
  4. William Penn: Liberty and Justice for All
  5. Benjamin Franklin: Live Wire
  6. George Washington: True Patriot
  7. Daniel Boone: Frontiersman
  8. John Adams: Independence Forever
  9. Benjamin Rush: The Common Good
  10. William Wilberforce: Take up the Fight
  11. Meriwether Lewis: Off the Edge of the Map
  12. Elizabeth Fry: Angel of Newgate
  13. Davy Crockett: Ever Westward
  14. Abraham Lincoln: A New Birth of Freedom
  15. Harriet Tubman: Freedombound
  16. Clara Barton: Courage Under Fire
  17. Thomas Edison: Inspiration and Hard Work
  18. Milton Hershey: More than Chocolate
  19. Theodore Roosevelt: An American Original
  20. George Washington Carver: From Slave to Scientist
  21. Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Storybook Life
  22. Orville Wright: The Flyer
  23. Ernest Shackleton: Going South
  24. Douglas MacArthur: What Greater Honor
  25. Ronald Reagan: Destiny at His Side
  26. Louis Zamperini: Redemption
  27. Billy Graham: America’s Pastor
  28. Alan Shepard: Higher and Faster
  29. Ben Carson: A Chance at Life
Laura Ingalls Wilder Unit Study

Faith & Character-Building Biographies of Missionaries

  1. Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf: Firstfruit
  2. John Wesley: The World His Parish
  3. John Newton: Change of Heart
  4. Francis Asbury: Circuit Rider
  5. William Carey: Obliged to Go
  6. Adoniram Judson: Bound for Burma
  7. John Williams: Messenger of Peace
  8. George Mueller: The Guardian of Bristol’s Orphans
  9. David Livingstone: Africa’s Trailblazer
  10. William Booth: Soup, Soap, and Salvation
  11. Hudson Taylor: Deep in the Heart of China
  12. D.L. Moody: Bringing Souls to Christ
  13. Lottie Moon: Giving Her all for China
  14. Mary Slessor: Forward Into Calabar
  15. Florence Young: Mission Accomplished
  16. Jonathan Goforth: An Open Door in China
  17. C.T. Studd: No Retreat
  18. Wilfred Grenfell: Fisher of Men
  19. Amy Carmichael: Rescuer of Precious Gems
  20. Samuel Zwemer: The Burden of Arabia
  21. Ida Scudder: Healing Bodies, Touching Hearts
  22. Rowland Bingham: Into Africa’s Interior
  23. Mildred Cable: Through the Jade Gate
  24. John Flynn: Into the Never Never
  25. Lillian Trasher: The Greatest Wonder in Egypt
  26. Sundar Singh: Footprints Over the Mountains
  27. Corrie ten Boom: Keeper of the Angel’s Den
  28. Norman Grubb: Mission Builder
  29. Cameron Townsend: Good News in Every Language
  30. C.S. Lewis: Master Storyteller
  31. Clarence Jones: Mr. Radio
  32. Isobel Kuhn: On the Roof of the World
  33. Eric Liddell: Something Greater Than Gold
  34. Gladys Aylward: The Adventure of a Lifetime
  35. Dietrich Bonhoeffer: In the Midst of Wickedness
  36. Richard Wurmbrand: Love Your Enemies
  37. Jacob DeShazer: Forgive Your Enemies
  38. Rachel Saint: A Star in the Jungle
  39. Paul Brand: Helping Hands
  40. Betty Greene: Wings to Serve
  41. Nate Saint: On a Wing and a Prayer
  42. Helen Roseveare: Mama Luka
  43. Elisabeth Elliot: Joyful Surrender
  44. Jim Elliot: One Great Purpose
  45. Brother Andrew: God’s Secret Agent
  46. Loren Cunningham: Into All the World
  47. David Bussau: Facing the World Head-on
  48. Charles Mulli: We are Family
  49. Klaus-Dieter John: Hope in the Land of the Incas
  50. Christopher Columbus: Across the Ocean Sea
  51. John Smith: A Foothold in the New World
  52. William Bradford: Plymouth’s Rock
  53. William Penn: Liberty and Justice for All
  54. Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf: Firstfruit
  55. John Wesley: The World His Parish
  56. Benjamin Franklin: Live Wire
  57. John Newton: Change of Heart
  58. George Washington: True Patriot
  59. Daniel Boone: Frontiersman
  60. John Adams: Independence Forever
  61. Francis Asbury: Circuit Rider
  62. Benjamin Rush: The Common Good
  63. William Wilberforce: Take up the Fight
  64. William Carey: Obliged to Go
  65. Meriwether Lewis: Off the Edge of the Map
  66. Elizabeth Fry: Angel of Newgate
  67. Davy Crockett: Ever Westward
  68. Adoniram Judson: Bound for Burma
  69. John Williams: Messenger of Peace
  70. George Mueller: The Guardian of Bristol’s Orphans
  71. Abraham Lincoln: A New Birth of Freedom
  72. David Livingstone: Africa’s Trailblazer
  73. Harriet Tubman: Freedombound
  74. Clara Barton: Courage Under Fire
  75. William Booth: Soup, Soap, and Salvation
  76. Hudson Taylor: Deep in the Heart of China
  77. D.L. Moody: Bringing Souls to Christ
  78. Lottie Moon: Giving Her all for China
  79. Thomas Edison: Inspiration and Hard Work
  80. Mary Slessor: Forward Into Calabar
  81. Florence Young: Mission Accomplished
  82. Milton Hershey: More than Chocolate
  83. Theodore Roosevelt: An American Original
  84. Jonathan Goforth: An Open Door in China
  85. C.T. Studd: No Retreat
  86. George Washington Carver: From Slave to Scientist
  87. Wilfred Grenfell: Fisher of Men
  88. Amy Carmichael: Rescuer of Precious Gems
  89. Samuel Zwemer: The Burden of Arabia
  90. Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Storybook Life
  91. Ida Scudder: Healing Bodies, Touching Hearts
  92. Orville Wright: The Flyer
  93. Rowland Bingham: Into Africa’s Interior
  94. Ernest Shackleton: Going South
  95. Mildred Cable: Through the Jade Gate
  96. John Flynn: Into the Never Never
  97. Douglas MacArthur: What Greater Honor
  98. Lillian Trasher: The Greatest Wonder in Egypt
  99. Sundar Singh: Footprints Over the Mountains
  100. Corrie ten Boom: Keeper of the Angel’s Den
  101. Norman Grubb: Mission Builder
  102. Cameron Townsend: Good News in Every Language
  103. C.S. Lewis: Master Storyteller
  104. Clarence Jones: Mr. Radio
  105. Isobel Kuhn: On the Roof of the World
  106. Eric Liddell: Something Greater Than Gold
  107. Gladys Aylward: The Adventure of a Lifetime
  108. Dietrich Bonhoeffer: In the Midst of Wickedness
  109. Richard Wurmbrand: Love Your Enemies
  110. Ronald Reagan: Destiny at His Side
  111. Jacob DeShazer: Forgive Your Enemies
  112. Rachel Saint: A Star in the Jungle
  113. Paul Brand: Helping Hands
  114. Louis Zamperini: Redemption
  115. Billy Graham: America’s Pastor
  116. Betty Greene: Wings to Serve
  117. Nate Saint: On a Wing and a Prayer
  118. Alan Shepard: Higher and Faster
  119. Helen Roseveare: Mama Luka
  120. Elisabeth Elliot: Joyful Surrender
  121. Jim Elliot: One Great Purpose
  122. Brother Andrew: God’s Secret Agent
  123. Loren Cunningham: Into All the World
  124. David Bussau: Facing the World Head-on
  125. Charles Mulli: We are Family
  126. Ben Carson: A Chance at Life
  127. Klaus-Dieter John: Hope in the Land of the Incas
How to Add Amazing Missionary Stories to Your Homeschool

How about you? What are your favorite faith and character-building books?

Did I miss any of your favorites? Let me know down in the comments!

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