11 Wholesome Chapter Book Series Your Kids Will Love
We’ve put together a list of our top chapter book series for kids. They’re wholesome, beautiful, and your family won’t be able to put them down!
My love for reading is clearly contagious. It seems as though we cannot have enough books to satisfy in our home. Most of my kids can be found on a given afternoon or evening curled up with a great book.
One way I’ve encouraged this love for reading is to get my kids hooked on a chapter book series. You get hooked on the first one and simply can’t wait to come back for more!
Reading a series is such a great way to connect ideas and pique further interests. Plus, it is easier to trust the content of subsequent books once we have read the first one.
I’ve done some of the leg work for you to hopefully save you a bit of time in searching for the best chapter book series. Here are our top 11 favorite series. I hope your kids love them!
Table of Contents
Our Favorite Wholesome Chapter Book Series for Kids
1. Little House on the Prairie and Little Britches
I doubt the Little House series needs much explanation, but if you happen to have forgotten about it…don’t miss this opportunity to teach your children about what life was like in early America. The family values and references to God are a refreshing and welcome part of this series. Little Britches is a similar series, but perhaps with a more masculine spin. Both would make excellent family read-alouds for almost any age, which is why they are number one on our favorite Christian books for kids list.
2. All-of-a-Kind-Family
Written in the 1950s, this series is a rare find. Rich vocabulary and wholesome values are just a few of the reasons why this series is sought after. The family’s charm and adventures will captivate your heart!
3. Grandma’s Attic
In these stories, a young girl delights in the stories her grandmother tells. It’s a wonderful treasury of faith, adventure, and timeless life lessons. They are great for middle elementary-aged kids.
4. Imagination Station
Written by the folks from Adventures in Odyssey, Imagination Station promises young readers (ages 7-12) adventure and mystery. This series is much like the popular Magic Tree House series, minus the magic and wizardry. There are more than 9 volumes of excitement.
5. Moody Family Series
If you are looking for a series that makes life beautiful, the Moody Family series will not disappoint. So far, Sarah Maxwell has written 7 books detailing the pleasures of the good life…following a simple homeschooling family as they help others, learn to love God, and enjoy time as a family. This series makes a great family read-aloud or a trustworthy independent selection!
6. Cul-de-Sac Kids
Perfect for your new chapter book reader, the Cul-de-Sac Kids enchant with tales of friendship, teamwork, and faith as they explore the neighborhood. These books are short, making them perfect for building confidence.
7. Rod and Staff Chapter Books
I fell in love with Rod and Staff books at my very first homeschool convention. With books on every level, they are perfect for read-alouds or independent reading. The books share stories of simple families living lives that honor Christ. Farming, homemaking, and missions are just a few of the topics covered. My 8-year-old cannot get enough of these books, so I had to include them even though they aren’t exactly a series.
8. Sugar Creek Gang
Promising adventure and excitement, the Sugar Creek Gang has been captivating children for more than 50 years! These chapter books are relatively short, but packed with fun.
9. Sisters in Time
Another great historical fiction series told from a child’s point of view. Sisters in Time has a clearly Christian perspective as the characters rely on God for protection, grace, and provision during some of history’s most difficult times. Perfect for family read-alouds.
10. Christian Heroes Then and Now
Last, but possibly my favorite is Christian Heroes Then and Now. With over 25 volumes, there is a story for every time period and region. From your living room, you can relive the stories of the heroes of our faith as they share the gospel with the world. If you like missionary stories, here’s a list of our favorite missionary books!
11. The Kingdom Series
I may have saved the best for last. This is a chapter book series that our entire family has fallen in love with. It’s a complete allegory of the Bible set in medieval times. There are knights, sword fights, warriors, and ladies.
But even better than that, the lessons in this series as well as the other three chapter book series written by Chuck Black are inspiring and faith-building! Check out the Kingdom Series here.
Your turn –> What are your favorite chapter book series for kids? Inquiring minds want to know!
Through practical tools & Bible-based resources, Kim Sorgius is dedicated to helping your family GROW in faith so you can be Not Consumed by life’s struggles. Author of popular kid’s devotional Bible studies and practical homeschooling tools, Kim has a master’s degree in education and curriculum design coupled with over 2 decades of experience working with kids and teens. Above all, her most treasured job is mother and homeschool teacher of four amazing kiddos.
what a great list! so many ive never heard of!!!
YOu know what I love about your list – they are all….straight up, good character books…more of God – less of the world!!!!
I was actually a little surprised at how difficult it was to weed out those books that didn’t put lovely and pure things in their minds!
Another good one… “B is for Betsy” series. They were written in the 1930s. The first book is about Betsy starting school and each one after that is a different school year. They are extremely wholesome. The libraries have all of them.
We read through the entire Cul de Sac Kids series a while back! I had forgotten about that one.
Thanks for the list. It’s wonderful!
Thanks for sharing this list! We too love Little House books. I’ve not heard of the Little Britches series, I will have to find those. We have the Odyssey series as well. Great list!
My son is thrilled with “chapter books” – to a seven-year-old the fact that a book has chapters makes it so “grown up”!! We are reading some Magic Tree House books this summer and I didn’t know about the Imagination Station books!! I loved Adventures in Odyssey growing up and my son is loving the Magic Tree House books so they sound perfect for us! Visiting from Domestically Divine 🙂
Kristen @ Trial & Error Homemaking
loved your choice for this top ten!! this is perfect! thanks 🙂
This is an awesome list! I pinned it! 🙂
Nice list. My daughter enjoyed the Dear America books when she was younger. I am going to have to check my library for the All-of-a-kind-Family books. They look very interesting. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you so much! These are the kind of books I’d love to expose my children to! I’m going to put a lot of them in my “to read/to get from the library” list! THANKS!
Thank you! I have been looking for good books for my 8 year old boy to read by himself!!!! I’ve had a hard time finding lists this specific. Now all I have to do is find the books somewhere!
Thanks so much for the suggestions! The only ones we have read are the Little House and All of A Kind Family. We also discovered a new series, somewhat similar to All of A Kind family, called The Doll Shop Downstairs. There are only two in the series so far, but Abby really enjoyed them.
I like the historical aspect of The Doll Shop series. I will have to check those out!
Little Britches is the #1 read aloud in our family too
We love The Mysterious Benedict Society, and it has just come out with a fourth book.
Do you think this series lends itself more to boys, Jeff?
So timely!!! I was on the hunt for some good chapter books for my daughter and was so sad about what was in the bookstore. Keeping this list on the fridge for sure!
Check out the Christian horse series for girls too! My daughter has been loving working through that list too! There is so much junk literature out these days it’s hard to find the good 🙂
Thanks for sharing these! I need to read All-of-a-Kind Family!
These are AMAZING! I want to look into them ALL!!
Hey again Kimberly, I’m excited right now because I hadn’t ever heard of the “Imagination Station” series… my 7 year old daughter would eat up the adventure, and my husband too! And Little House is always a favorite here! 🙂 ~ Amy
Great list. We have many of them. Thank you for linking it up on Domestically Divine.
Thank you for sharing this at Deep Roots! We have loved almost all of these. The only ones that have stopped me from featuring this excellent post on the Wednesday ‘EOA’ link-up are the Dear America series book. I am glad you mentioned to read the Dear America first for graphic content. My concern in our home was getting them and then getting busy, and they read it alone. Still they are SO much better than run of the mill stuff at the public library 🙂 Blessings!
Ohhh….I haven’t heard of some of these! My 7 year old girls LOVE Pony Pals, I try to read them to them during school one chapter a day and then do some comprehension work on them but……we end up reading our chapter books in a couple of days instead. They are always begging, “PLEASE read just ONE more chapter”. lol Who can complain about that??? 🙂
We have read the Moody Family series by Sarah Maxwell, and my kids LOVED, LOVED, LOVED them!!! My 9 year old is now reading them on her own (and she doesn’t usually read unless I give her an assignment to). They are anxiously awaiting the next one to come out, which when I asked Sarah at a recent homeschool conference, probably won’t be till Spring. You can find them at Titus2.com.
Thanks for the list! I wrote them down. . . I’ve started a list when I see good wholesome books recommended so that when I go to the second hand bookstore, I know what to look for!
Could you link to where you bought your Rod and Staff books? Or possibly a list of them?
Thanks!
The easiest place to find the Rod and Staff books is a homeschool convention, honestly.
Here is one example from their site… http://www.rodandstaffbooks.com/item/1-2337/
I’ll have to look when I go in May (I think I noticed you commenting that you’ll be at TTD in Spartanburg too!)
Thanks again for the great list!
Yes! I’ll be at all three TTD conferences this year! It would be great to meet you.
Great recommendations here, Kim! We’re actually reading All of a Kind Family right now — as well as the Eric Liddell Christian Heroes book. Thank you for linking with Read Aloud Thursday!
I found you via pinterest and just wanted to say Thank You for this list. I’ve seen other “favorite book” lists before, but never really cared for the books listed. I like everything you have here. Couldn’t have found this at a better time… we are just pages away from finishing the Little House series. Thanks!
When my girls were just starting to read chapter books, they enjoyed “A Dog Called Naaman” and “Sophie, Pay Attention.” Both featured Biblical characters and modern-day kids as well. Thanks for this post!
We are enjoying the Animal Friends series by Janette Oke. Each book focuses on the adventures of one animal, I.e cat, dog, skunk. They are great first chapter books. Short chapters. I have enjoyed Janette Oke’s prairie novels for years. I was so excite to find she does children books also.
My boys loved the American Adventure series…it’s historical fiction beginning with children coming to America on the Mayflower and continues through the major events in American history over the next three hundred years…they go all the way to the end of WWII! Here’s a link to a list of all 48 books… https://www.goodreads.com/series/67021-american-adventure
I think they are out of print now, but they are still somewhat easy to find. 🙂
My boys also loved the Boxcar Children series.
Great post, glad I came across this. Pinning!!