What’s Inside: Charlotte Mason living books: What they are, how to select them, and why they benefit your kids.
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What is a “Living Book”?
The idea of a “living book” sounds lovely, but what exactly does that mean? Let’s drill it down with some concrete answers.
Charlotte Mason (CM) believed that children should be fed on living ideas. Books are one way to lay a table with a smorgasbord of great ideas for your children.
So a living book is simply one that contains living ideas.
But what are living ideas?
Three quotes from CM from her 20 Principles in her “Short Synopsis of an Educational Philosophy” address the concept of living ideas in a broad sense. (The following quotes are from Volume 6 Towards a Philosophy of Education, emphasis mine.)
Principle #5:
Therefore, we are limited to three educational instruments––the atmosphere of environment, the discipline of habit, and the presentation of living ideas. The P.N.E.U. Motto is: “Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life.”
And Principle #8:
In saying that “education is a life,” the need of intellectual and moral as well as of physical sustenance is implied. The mind feeds on ideas, and therefore children should have a generous curriculum.
And Principle #9:
We hold that the child’s mind is no mere sac to hold ideas; but is rather, if the figure may be allowed, a spiritual organism, with an appetite for all knowledge. This is its proper diet, with which it is prepared to deal; and which it can digest and assimilate as the body does foodstuffs.
She further elucidates:
The educable part of a person is his mind. The training of the senses and muscles is, strictly speaking, training and not education. The mind, like the body, requires quantity, variety and regularity in the sustenance offered to it. Like the body, the mind has its appetite, the desire for knowledge. Again, like the body, the mind is able to receive and assimilate by its powers of attention and reflection. Like the body, again, the mind rejects insipid, dry, and unsavoury food, that is to say, its pabulum should be presented in a literary form. The mind is restricted to pabulum of one kind: it is nourished upon ideas and absorbs facts only as these are connected with the living ideas upon which they hang. Children educated upon some such lines as these respond in a surprising way, developing capacity, character, countenance, initiative and a sense of responsibility. They are, in fact, even as children, good and thoughtful citizens.

Why should we read living books?
Children should read living books because they are making connections, or relations as Charlotte Mason calls it, with all of the ideas in their heads.
The ideas become the framework for the child to absorb facts and be nourished in his mind. A satisfying meal, so to speak.
How does this apply when selecting books for my kids?
You know you want “living books” with “living ideas”.
Here are your options to find them:
- Go to trusted sources that you know will recommend living books.
- Follow a “living books” curriculum
- Learn to judge if a book is a living book
- You’ll have to distinguish a living book from twaddle
- Also you should be able to distinguish living books from “insipid, dry, and unsavoury” books
Know that there isn’t always a finite answer when you are judging a book. And no one from the Living Books Police is going to come and tell you you are doing it wrong. Remember, there’s some leeway.
Trusted Sources & Living Books Curriculum
Good lists of living books deserves its own post. I’ll let you know my favorite sources and lists of living books, as well as the curriculum I’m familiar with. There are a number of good comprehensive lists out there, and I probably don’t know all of them, so I will stick to what I do know and can recommend, but not in this post.
Our posts at Self Educating Family have very specific recommendations for certain situations, like my review our our favorite math living books, or the list of living books that one of my sons read in high school.
Your public library is a good source for getting hold of the titles you find. The Classics department is usually a safe bet.
But if you have little ones, consider starting your own personal home library by gifting worthy books to your kids. We really only keep our favorites, but I know some moms who have followed a living books curriculum who have kept a set of books from every year just to be ready for younger kids coming up in the grades.
Learning to judge if a book is a living book
Twaddle
This is usually the easy part. If we liken living books to a smorgasbord, then twaddle is potato chips or diet soda. Empty calories. If that’s all you eat, you’ll eventually die of malnutrition.
Case in point: Captain Underpants.
Do I have to say more?
Yes?
Okay…
Twaddle will contain fruitless ideas or no ideas at all.
Once, my sons received a gift book from a well-meaning grandma. The book was about a colorful monkey who is in space for some reason. The illustration looked like a bad computer animation. Something happens to the monkey and then the book ends.
It was so bad I couldn’t stand reading it to my kids and I’ve forgotten the plot if it had one. I had to get it out of our house. Life is too short to read bad books.
Why was it twaddle? The language looked like it was sent through a translator multiple times. The pictures would have been better if they had given a real monkey a paintbrush. And the story was contrived and flat.
Think about it. Are there great stories with monkeys in them? Of course, think of Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina. Are there living books that are about space? Naturally. Did you ever read Starry Messenger by Peter Sis?
And what about dry facts?
If you ever have had to read a textbook, you KNOW what I mean. It’s not to say that living books don’t contain facts, but they are presented in such a way that the language is lively and stirs the imagination.
Here’s a sample of a fact-strewn book about Queen Victoria:
“Victoria’s time as Queen of England came to be known as “The Victorian Era.” This era was known for its strict moral principles. Under her leadership, the United Kingdom became a world power. During her reign, there was huge progress in communication as well as industry and technology.” – Baby Professor
Compare that to some lines about Victoria in “Abraham Lincoln’s World” by Genevieve Foster:
“Victoria wrote in her diary faithfully every night before she went to bed, underlining all the words that she thought were most important. And she often wrote to her Dearest, most Beloved Uncle Leopold in Belgium. She did both on the memorable day when she because Queen of England.”
The former example almost puts us to sleep while the latter helps us to picture the person as it is happening.
Questions to help you judge if it’s a living book
Does it possess literary merit?
That question is from The Unlikely Homeschool which has excellent book lists.
“Literary merit”.
- So Captain Underpants? No. Abundant examples of misspellings (always bad for kids to see misspellings and possibly not recognize that the word is misspelled). Plus, short sentences, and “dumbed down” situations, as if that is what the child is capable of.
- Pride and Prejudice? Yes. Excessively so. Words used beautifully and memorably.
Remember that this is semi-subjective. For instance, there’s debate on Dr. Suess. Some families love his books and others… not so much. It’s okay to like books that others don’t see as literary.
I think I confessed to us LOVING the Chester series by Melanie Watt. It’s probably not the greatest literature ever made, but it even made me laugh because of the way she played with the author being a character in the story.
Always – do what works for your family. These are just suggestions.
Does it encourage the imagination?
Are your kids transported by the story? Do they beg for more?
Quite simply, living books come alive as you read them. They are so well-written and engaging that you can hardly put them down. – Our Journey Westward
Are they engaged in their own narrations and enthusiastic about the story?
Can you hear the voice of the narrator?
Living books usually tell a story in a conversational way.
Is it all dry facts?
Most importantly, a living book will contain living ideas, not just dry facts. Ideas that help shape who you are becoming as a person. – Simply Charlotte Mason
That’s not to say that non-fiction, or even textbooks, can’t be living books. Just not boring ones. For instance, Story of the World is lovely. We liked listening to it in the car. Especially short trips – we could usually finish a “chapter” of one subject easily. Then if anyone wanted to chat about it, we could.
Summary
What did Charlotte Mason say about living books?
Charlotte Mason said:
Education is the Science of Relations; that is, that a child has natural relations with a vast number of things and thoughts: so we must train him upon physical exercises, nature, handicrafts, science and art, and upon many living books; for we know that our business is, not to teach him all about anything, but to help him make valid, as many as may be of
- ‘Those first born affinities,
‘That fit our new existence to existing things.’
FAQ
A living book is simply one that contains living ideas that spark the imagination.
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