Modern Times book list for Simply Charlotte Mason
Modern Times runs from 1812 to the present. Public-domain options thin out after 1928. Budget for library copies of twentieth-century titles. SCM sells the Pageant Modern Times guide and America: Our Stories, Volume 2.
SCM versus library
A Pageant of History: Modern Times and America: Our Stories, Volume 2 are the paid spines. Little House, Number the Stars, Anne Frank, and Corrie ten Boom are library holds. Booker T. Washington's Up from Slavery is public domain.
Copyright is why this list looks more 'library' than Egypt. That is not a defect. It is the honest split.
Pacing the present
Families argue about how close to last year a living book should come. SCM's volume has an endpoint; you can add a current-events habit without buying another history course. Keep the Book of Centuries going.
Living-book standard: charlotte mason living books. Other programs: charlotte mason curriculum comparison.
Reading load and substitutions
Twentieth-century living books often have hard scenes. Read ahead. Mason asked for living books, not unfiltered ones.
Little House can be several volumes or two. You do not owe the whole series to the term.
Up from Slavery is public domain and dense. Narrate by chapter. It can be the high-school American thread without a second textbook.
Do not buy a current-events subscription to 'finish' Modern Times. A weekly oral narration of one news story is enough. Shipping $129; returns 60 days (checked 2026-09-06).
War books need a parent preview. Mason wanted living books, not horror. Skip a title rather than harden a ten-year-old.
America: Our Stories Volume 2 is the US thread. World chapters in the Pageant guide still matter. Do not treat this year as US-only unless that is a deliberate choice.
A photograph of a trench is not a living book. Pair images with a narration of a person who was there.
The list
A Pageant of History: Modern Times runs from 1812 to the present. SCM pairs it with America: Our Stories, Volume 2. Public-domain options thin out after 1928; budget for library copies.
Family
- SCM — A Pageant of History: Modern Times: $22.95–$32.95 (ebook / print teacher guide; checked 2026-09-06)
- SCM — America: Our Stories, Volume 2 (Lorene Lambert): $16.95–$24.95 (ebook / print; checked 2026-09-06)
- SCM — My Book of Centuries: $12.95–$18.95 (ebook / print; free template also offered; checked 2026-09-06)
Grades 1–3
- Library — The Little House series, selected volumes (Laura Ingalls Wilder)
Grades 4–6
- Library — Number the Stars (Lois Lowry)
- Library — The Wright Brothers (Quentin Reynolds or a living biography of your choice)
Grades 7–9
- Library — The Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
- Library — Cheaper by the Dozen (Frank Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey)
Grades 10–12
- Library — The Hiding Place (Corrie ten Boom)
- Public domain — Up from Slavery (Booker T. Washington)
Source labels follow SCM's own split. Prices checked on each product's date. Affiliate disclosure.