For this month, the 2026 August Reading Challenge focuses on reading a book set in another time period.
Inspired by the success of GSHE’s past reading challenges and similar programs offered by public libraries, GSHE is continuing its monthly Reading Challenge for 2026, created especially for New Hampshire’s homeschool community.
This challenge is designed to be simple, flexible, and enjoyable. Each month offers a broad reading theme that encourages children to explore new authors, subjects, and genres in ways that fit your homeschool style.
Families may choose any book that matches the monthly theme and feels appropriate for their child’s age, interests, and reading level.
There are no required book reports, projects, logs, or submissions to GSHE. If you choose to keep a record of your child’s participation, it may be included in your homeschool portfolio, but that is entirely optional.
Participation
GSHE does not collect reading logs, track participation, or offer prizes for the Reading Challenge. Families are welcome to extend the challenge in their own creative ways, such as offering a small monthly incentive, planning special library visits, or setting aside dedicated family reading time.
For children who are not yet reading independently, audiobooks and family read-alouds count. Readers of all abilities are welcome.
If you’d like encouragement and ideas for reading together as a family, you may also enjoy:
Read Alouds: Benefits, Research, and Favorite Books – Part 1
Read Alouds: Tips and Favorite Books – Part 2
Finding Books on a Budget
Your local library is a great place to start, including access to interlibrary loan (ILL) programs.
GSHE members also have access to a wide range of free book and audiobook resources through the GSHE Resource Directory. Create a free account at gshenh.org/join to explore options such as:
Libby by OverDrive
LibriVox (public-domain audiobooks)
NH Downloadable Books Consortium
Project Gutenberg
Storyberries (especially helpful for younger readers)
Ben and Me (free Kindle books for children)
For August, read a story set in a different time period!
Travel to another era through the pages of a great book! Whether your family explores ancient civilizations, medieval castles, the American frontier, World War II, or even the distant future, stories set in another time and place help children better understand history, culture, and the people who came before us. Historical fiction brings the past to life, while biographies, memoirs, and nonfiction provide a window into real events. Even time-travel stories and classic science fiction encourage readers to compare different societies and consider how the choices we make today shape tomorrow.
Many of these books have also been adapted into films, providing another opportunity for family discussion and comparison after you’ve finished reading.
Preschool & Early Readers, ages 3 to 8
- Virginia Lee Burton – The Little House
- Marguerite de Angeli – The Door in the Wall
- Holling C. Holling – Paddle-to-the-Sea
- Holling C. Holling – Tree in the Trail
- Robert McCloskey – Make Way for Ducklings
- Lucy Maud Montgomery – Anne of Green Gables (read aloud)
- Scott O’Dell – Island of the Blue Dolphins
- Laura Ingalls Wilder – Little House on the Prairie
Middle Readers, ages 9 to 12
- Rochelle Alexandra – In Alexa’s Shoes
- Esther Forbes – Johnny Tremain
- Jean Fritz – George Washington’s Breakfast
- Jean Fritz – Homesick
- Lois Lowry – Number the Stars
- Patricia MacLachlan – Sarah, Plain and Tall
- Gary Paulsen – Hatchet
- Margi Preus – Heart of a Samurai
- Elizabeth George Speare – The Bronze Bow
- Elizabeth George Speare – The Sign of the Beaver
- Elizabeth George Speare – The Witch of Blackbird Pond
- Rosemary Sutcliff – The Eagle of the Ninth (The Roman Britain Trilogy, Book One)
- Mildred D. Taylor – The Friendship
Teens, ages 13+
- Amanda Barratt – The White Rose Resists: A Novel of the German Students Who Defied Hitler
- Beowulf
- Ray Bradbury – Fahrenheit 451
- Joseph Bruchac – Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War II
- James Fenimore Cooper – The Last of the Mohicans
- Stephen Crane – The Red Badge of Courage
- Charles Dickens – A Tale of Two Cities
- Charles Dickens – Great Expectations
- Philip K. Dick – The Man in the High Castle
- Ken Follett – The Pillars of the Earth
- Anne Frank – The Diary of a Young Girl
- Alex Haley – Roots: The Saga of an American Family
- Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Scarlet Letter
- Robert Heinlein – Citizen of the Galaxy
- Victor Hugo – The Hunchback of Notre Dame
- Thomas Keneally – Schindler’s List
- Madeleine L’Engle – A Wrinkle in Time
- Jack London – The Call of the Wild
- Arthur Miller – The Crucible
- Charles Nordhoff – Mutiny on the Bounty
- Annette Oppenlander – 47 Days: The True Story of Two Teen Boys Defying Hitler’s Reich
- George Orwell – Animal Farm
- George Orwell – Nineteen Eighty-Four
- Gary Paulsen – Soldier’s Heart
- Erich Maria Remarque – All Quiet on the Western Front
- Walter Scott – Ivanhoe
- Ruta Sepetys – The Fountains of Silence
- John Steinbeck – The Grapes of Wrath
- Robert Louis Stevenson – Kidnapped
- Robert Louis Stevenson – Treasure Island
- Mark Twain – A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
- Mark Twain – The Prince and the Pauper
- Jules Verne – Around the World in Eighty Days
- Jules Verne – Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas
- Kurt Vonnegut – Harrison Bergeron
- H. G. Wells – The Time Machine
- Elie Wiesel – Night
- Kip Wilson – White Rose
Suggested Authors & Series
- Isaac Asimov – Foundation series
- G. A. Henty – Nearly 100 books of historical adventure and historical fiction
- David Macaulay – Cathedrals, Castles, Pyramids
- Gary Paulsen – Soldier’s Heart, Hatchet
- Elizabeth George Speare – The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Calico Captive, The Bronze Bow
- Mark Twain – A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper
- Rosemary Sutcliff – Roman Britain Trilogy and other historical novels
- Jean Fritz – Historical fiction and biographies for young readers
- Genevieve Foster – Timeline-style history books connecting world events
- Avi – Historical fiction including The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle and Crispin: The Cross of Lead
