Books featuring homeschoolers

Like other kids, homeschoolers can be inspired by seeing themselves in fiction. The problem is that many of the depictions of homeschoolers in mainstream fiction depend on misinformation and depict homeschoolers as two-dimensional. The books on this list all show more well-rounded depictions of homeschool life.

Some of them are older books from before the time when homeschoolers were considered unusual. Many are more recent, positive depictions of kids living modern homeschooling lives. Please leave other suggestions in the comments below. (I haven’t read all of these, so let me know if any don’t belong on this list.)

Young Readers (picture and chapter books):

• Bean, Jonathan: This is my Home, This is my School
  This is the rare picture book about homeschooling, from a mainstream publisher, no less.
• Coven, Wanda: Heidi Heckelbeck
• Drummond, Ree: Charlie the Ranch Dog
  This picture book series by the Pioneer Woman features a homeschooled…dog!
• Green, Poppy: Sophie Mouse series
• Hoban, Russell: How Tom Beat Captain Najork and His Hired Sportsmen
• King-Smith, Dick: Clever Lollipop
• Orr, Wendy: Nim’s Island
• Paris, Harper: Greetings from Somewhere
  Travel-schooling!
• Reyes, Gabrielle: Dolphin Tale: The Junior Novel
• Riddell, Chris: Ottoline and the Yellow Cat
• Schultz, Leslie: The Howling Vowels
• Wessling, Suki: Hanna, Homeschooler

Middle Grade (8-13 years):

• Almond, David: Skellig
• Atkinson, Elizabeth: I, Emma Freke
• Baranoski, Sheila: Cellular Spirits
  Eric Achak is a twelve-year-old unschooler who can see ghosts. He thinks he’s the only one who has this problem until he meets Mr. Francis, who not only can see them but has developed a ghost-catching app that sucks ghosts into cell phones.
• Barnhill, Kelly: The Girl Who Drank the Moon
• Bodett, Tom: Williwaw!
• Burnett, Frances Hodgson: The Secret Garden
  Not really a book about homeschooling, but children in Victorian Britain didn’t always go to school, and it never seemed to be such a huge issue, as long as they were learning and thriving.
• Cook, Kacy: Nuts
• Cottrell-Bentley, Lisa: Wright on Time series (click here for all books published by Lisa’s company, Do Life Right, which focuses on books about homeschoolers)
• Forester, Victoria: The Girl who could Fly
• Frank, Lucy: The Homeschool Liberation League
• French, S. Terrell: Operation Redwood
  The homeschool family in this book is just a tad stereotypical (back to the land hippies), but they are lovely characters and as role models, impeccable.
• Hannigan, Katherine: Ida B… and her plans to maximize fun, avoid disaster, and (possibly) save the world
• Hatke, Ben: Mighty Jack
• Hawes, Louise: Big Rig
  This is the very best depiction of roadschooling I’ve ever read in a kids’ book, hands down. On the homeschooling front, I absolutely can’t fault this book—4 stars, 2 thumbs up. However, I only recommend this book with reservations. I have serious concerns about letting kids think that a teen girl hitchhiking alone at a truck stop would end up OK. And a book about trucking that doesn’t point out its contribution to the climate crisis at this point seems really dated. So… lots of great conversation for homeschoolers here! But I wouldn’t recommend it as solo reading lest your kid think that girls who frequent truck stops and try to sweet talk truckers are not making a (dangerous, illegal) business of it.
• Key, Watt: Alabama Moon
• Kilbride, Susan: Our America series
• Kleinman, Liza: Azalea, Unschooled
• Korman, Gordon: Schooled
• LaFevers, R.L.: Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos
• Law, Ingrid: Savvy
• Leali, Michael: The Civil War of Amos Abernathy
  Two boys—one homeschooled the other in school, one in a conservative church and one in a liberal church—are gay. When they meet up in a historical reenactment park, their friendship helps them learn more about history and about themselves.
• Mass, Wendy: Every Soul a Star
• Morpurgo, Michael: Kensuke’s Kingdom
• Palacio, R.J.: Wonder
  I love this book but recommend it with reservations: Homeschooling has clearly not harmed the main character, who is smart, well-educated, and socialized (as well as a boy with a scarily deformed face can be socialized). But the references to homeschooling are somewhat negative in that they imply that because his mother is “not good at fractions,” she can’t homeschool him anymore. Heck, you don’t have to be good at fractions to homeschool kids anymore, especially if you have enough money to send them to private school! I say read it with your kids and ask them whether they think homeschooling was depicted fairly.
• Patterson, James: Treasure Hunters
• Peterson, Stephanie Wilson: Nellie Nova Takes Flight
• Riordan, Rick: The Kane Chronicles (starts with The Red Pyramid)
• Selden, George: The Genie of Sutton Place
• Selznick, Brian: Wonderstruck
• Stead, Rebecca: Liar & Spy
• Tolan, Stephanie: Surviving the Applewhites and Applewhites at Wit’s End
• Wheeler, Patti: Travels of Gannon and Wyatt

Young Adult (13+):

• Carter, Ally: I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You
• Hubbard, Susan: The Society of S
  I enjoyed this book, which is quite well-written. The main character is the daughter of a vampire and a human who is kept in 19th-century style seclusion due to her “condition”—she may be a vampire like her father. Her father is distant but loving and she gets a fine classical homeschool education. Although the theme of this book is lovely—finding family and love—it does contain some grisly murders and wouldn’t be appropriate for younger kids.
• Johnson, J.J.: This Girl Is Different
• Lee, Harper: To Kill a Mockingbird
  I reread this recently and I was surprised to see that Atticus and his brother “never went to school.” Atticus is a lawyer, his brother is a doctor. When Scout first goes to school, the teacher tells her that “your daddy taught you wrong” because she could already read. Scout is mighty confused at this, as she could read for as long as she could remember. Not a book about homeschooling, but the message about the damage that school and bad teachers can do is loud and clear.
• Mull, Brandon: Beyonders: A World Without Heroes
• Oppel, Kenneth: This Dark Endeavor and sequels
  I have only read the first of this series. It portrays young Victor’s education as rather more lacking than the original Frankenstein (see Shelley below). It’s not anti-homeschooling, but it does point out the problem that can arise when a parent simply isn’t interested in an entire field of study and doesn’t guide his son’s studies in that area.
• Rudnick, Paul: It’s All Your Fault
• Shelley, Mary: Frankenstein
  Similar to The Secret Garden, this book hearkens back to a time and place when schooling was not the only way to learn. Young Victor Frankenstein and his cohorts do OK, though Victor does have a bit of a problem with the question of whether it’s moral to create a new life and then abandon it. Apparently, Daddy forgot to teach that high school class on ethics.
• Sloan, Holly Goldberg: I’ll Be There
• Spinelli, Jerry: Stargirl