Because we regard exposure to great novels, plays and poetry as crucially important to a child’s intellectual development, the school schedule includes a daily class devoted exclusively to the study of literature. Students read a minimum of ten novels and plays every school year.

The works of literature that we select are chosen with definite criteria in mind. First, they are stories that capture the imagination in vivid detail and with great plots. Second, they are well-written stories, offering students examples of English used at its very best. Third, many are chosen because they integrate with periods in history that the students are studying, thereby bringing to life different human experiences from across time.

Students at VanDamme Academy also regularly study poetry. They read, discuss, and memorize poems of all kinds: narrative, humorous, or descriptive. Students also sometimes recite their favorite poems before an audience. We value poetry as part of our literature program because of the pure enjoyment it offers, because it introduces a unique form of expression to our students, and because of its evocative use of language.

Included here are titles of some of the books that VanDamme Academy students read at each grade level. They are intended to give you an idea of the kinds of literature that our students enjoy every year.

Elementary 1

selections from Aesop’s Fables

Farmer Boy – Laura Ingalls Wilder

The Trumpet of the Swan – E.B. White

The Sword in the Tree – Clyde Robert Bulla

Thimble Summer – Elizabeth Enright

Call It Courage – Armstrong Perry

The Door in the Wall – Marguerite di Angeli

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis

The Prince and the Pauper – Mark Twain

Victory at Valmy – Geoffrey Trease

Pollyanna – Eleanor H. Porter

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler – E.L. Konigsburg

D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths

The Witch of Blackbird Pond – Elizabeth George Speare

Plays: “Miracle Worker” – William Gibson

           “Winslow Boy” – Terence Rattigan

The Scarlet Pimpernel – Baroness Orczy

Mythology – Edith Hamilton

Arrowsmith – Sinclair Lewis

The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas

Gone With the Wind – Margaret Mitchell

To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

Plays: “The Government Inspector” – Nikolai Gogol

           “Antigone” – Sophocles

Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy

Pere Goriot – Honore de Balzac

Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

Plays: “Cyrano de Bergerac” – Edmond Rostand

           “A Doll’s House” – Henrik Ibsen

           “Le Cid” – Pierre Corneille