Literature by Place

It's kind of crazy to what extent geography can inform an author's work. Jack London spent most of his life at sea, dog-sledding across Alaska, boxing and generally being an adventurous guy who would put today's REI crowd to shame. Would he have penned some of the greatest American novels otherwise? especially ones concerned primarily with man battling the elements for survival in both a mental and physical sense? Very probably not, which explains why Oscar Wilde didn't write about wolves and crazy ship captains.

No, Oscar Wilde wrote primarily about fops and society people parrying witticisms incessantly. That's not to say his work has no place in a serious consideration of literature—au contraire, The Picture of Dorian Grey is one of the finest novels written in English. It's just more evidence that if you're an author who lives in the Canadian mountains or the clubs of London, your writing will reflect that.

Physical terrain isn't the only consideration. Sartre wrote about people lolling about with no real sense of purpose except to drink wine and smoke cigarettes and look languorous because he lived in France in the 1940s. Friedrich Nietzsche had immense mustaches and espoused a form of nihilism because he was German. The Russians wrote impossibly long novels because they lived in Russia. And Chinua Achebe was almost entirely influenced by his African upbringing.

That's not to say no one can write well about a context they haven't experienced firsthand. I'm pretty sure Robert Heinlein never visited Mars, and even if he did it wasn't as his books describe; the same goes for Bradbury. And no, Roald Dahl was never lost in a delightfully (though at times, terrifyingly) absurd chocolate factory. Yet even with these examples, the authors conveyed essentially the attitudes of the countries they came from—Heinlein and Bradbury from the U.S., Dahl from the U.K.

Our Literature by Place subcategories are admittedly Anglo-centric. North American literature features, well, American literature, and you can be pretty sure British literature reflects the same system; everything else goes in world literature. We have plenty of non-American or -British literature, we just don't have much from any one place besides those two. At any rate, we hope these categories are helpful, and if they guide you toward one book you're looking for (or maybe one you didn't even know existed), they've done their job.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he's a husband and father who loves church, good food, and weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.
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228 Items found Print
Active Filters: 5th grade (Ages 10-11)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Sterling Classics
by Jules Verne, translated by Lewis Page Mercier and illustrated by Scott McKowen
from Sterling Publishing Co.
for 5th-10th grade
in Science Fiction (Location: FIC-SCI)
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 4th-6th grade
in Companion Library (Location: VIN-FIC)
Adventures of Tom Sawyer
by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 4th-6th grade
in Companion Library (Location: VIN-FIC)
Alexander of Macedon
International Collectors Library
by Harold Lamb
from International Collectors Library
for 4th-8th grade
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Alice in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by John Tenniel
from Blushing Rose Publishing
for 5th-8th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
Illustrated Junior Library Series 2
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by John Tenniel
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 5th-8th grade
in Illustrated Junior Library (Location: VIN-IJL)
Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
Illustrated Junior Library Series 1
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by John Tenniel
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 5th-8th grade
in Illustrated Junior Library (Location: VIN-IJL)
Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
Illustrated Junior Library Series 1
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by Roberta Paflin
from Whitman Publishing Company
for 5th-8th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by John Tenniel
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 5th-8th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Penguin Classics
by Lewis Carroll
from Penguin Classics
Fantasy for 5th-8th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$11.00
Alice's Adventures In Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by Peter Weevers
from Philomel Books
for 4th-7th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
Alice's Adventures In Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by Peter Weevers
from Hutchinson of Australia
for 4th-7th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass
Rainbow Classics
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by John Tenniel
from World Publishing Company
for 4th-10th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
America America America
by Kenneth Seeman Giniger (Editor), Illustrated by Leonard Everett Fisher
from Franklin Watts
for 3rd-Adult
in Vintage Anthology Collections (Location: VIN-ANTH)
American Folklore and Legend
by Robert Dolezal
from Reader's Digest
for 3rd-6th grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Andersen's Fairy Tales
Illustrated Junior Library Series 4
by Hans Christian Anderson, illustrated by Arthur Szyk
from Grosset & Dunlap
Fairy Tales for 3rd-6th grade
Andersen's Fairy Tales
Junior Deluxe Editions
by Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Leonard Weisgard
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 3rd-6th grade
Andersen's Fairy Tales
by Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Leonard Vosburgh
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 3rd-6th grade
Andersen's Fairy Tales
by Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Arthur Szyk
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 3rd-6th grade
Andersen's Fairy Tales
by Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Troy Howell
from Dilithium Press, Ltd.
for 3rd-6th grade
Andersen's Fairy Tales
by Hans Christian Andersen, translated by Valdemar Paulsen
from Barnes & Noble
for 3rd-8th grade
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Andersen's Fairy Tales
Illustrated Junior Library Series 1
by Hans Christian Anderson, illustrated by Arthur Szyk
from Grosset & Dunlap
Fairy Tales for 3rd-6th grade
in Illustrated Junior Library (Location: VIN-IJL)
Andersen's Fairy Tales
Illustrated Junior Library Series 2
by Hans Christian Anderson, illustrated by Arthur Szyk
from Grosset & Dunlap
Fairy Tales for 3rd-6th grade
in Illustrated Junior Library (Location: VIN-IJL)
Andersen's Fairy Tales
Illustrated Junior Library Series 3
by Hans Christian Anderson, illustrated by Arthur Szyk
from Grosset & Dunlap
Fairy Tales for 3rd-6th grade
in Illustrated Junior Library (Location: VIN-IJL)
Andersen's Fairy Tales
by Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Kay Nielsen
from Viking Press
for 3rd-8th grade
Andersen's Fairy Tales
Illustrated Junior Library Series 2
by Hans Christian Anderson, illustrated by Arthur Szyk
from Grosset & Dunlap
Fairy Tales for 3rd-6th grade
in Illustrated Junior Library (Location: VIN-IJL)
Andersen's Fairy Tales
Illustrated Junior Library Series 2 Paperback
by Hans Christian Anderson, illustrated by Arthur Szyk
from Grosset & Dunlap
Fairy Tales for 3rd-6th grade
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Andersen's Fairy Tales
Windermere Readers #8
by Hans Christian Andersen, translated by Valdemar Paulsen and illustrated by Milo Winter
1954 Edition from Rand McNally
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Andersen's Fairy Tales
Windermere Series 1
by Hans Christian Andersen, translated by Valdemar Paulsen and illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Andersen's Fairy Tales
Windermere Series 2 (Cover 1)
by Hans Christian Andersen, translated by Valdemar Paulsen and illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Andersen's Fairy Tales
Windermere Series 2 (Cover 2)
by Hans Christian Andersen, translated by Valdemar Paulsen and illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Andersen's Fairy Tales
Windermere Series 3
by Hans Christian Andersen, translated by Valdemar Paulsen and illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Andersen's Fairy Tales
Windermere Series 4
by Hans Christian Andersen, translated by Valdemar Paulsen and illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Andersen's Fairy Tales / Grimm's Fairy Tales
by Hans Christian Andersen, Brothers Grimm
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 2nd-5th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Animal Stories
by Joel Chandler Harris, illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats
from Junior Deluxe Editions
for 2nd-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Ardizzone's Hans Andersen
by Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Edward Ardizzone
from Atheneum
for 3rd-8th grade
At the Back of the North Wind
Macmillan Classics
by George MacDonald, illustrated by Harvey Dinnerstein
from Macmillan
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
At the Back of the North Wind
New Children's Classics
by George MacDonald, illustrated by George & Doris Hauman
from Macmillan
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
At the Back of the North Wind
by George MacDonald, illustrated by Charles Mozley
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
At the Back of the North Wind
by George MacDonald, illustrated by Maria Kirk
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
At the Back of the North Wind
by George MacDonald, illustrated by Frank C. Pape
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Bag of Moonshine
by Alan Garner, illustrated by P. J. Lynch
from Delacorte Press
for 3rd-6th grade
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Bambi's Children
by Felix Salten, illustrated by Erna Pinner
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 3rd-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Bambi's Children
by Felix Salten, illustrated by Kurt Wiese
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 3rd-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Beowulf (retold)
by Rosemary Sutcliff
from E.P. Dutton & Co.
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Boy of the South Seas
by Eunice Tietjens, illustrated by Myrtle Sheldon
from Macmillan
for 4th-8th grade
1932 Newbery Honor Book
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (Young Reader's Edition)
by William Kamkwamba & Bryan Mealer
from Dial Books for Young Readers
for 4th-8th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (Young Reader's Edition)
by William Kamkwamba & Bryan Mealer
from Rocky Pond Books
for 4th-8th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$9.99
C. S. Lewis: The Ultimate Collection
by C. S. Lewis
for 3rd-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$658.77
Charlatan's Boy
by Jonathan Rogers
from WaterBrook Press
for 5th-7th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
Children of Noisy Village
by Astrid Lindgren
from Puffin Books
for 4th-6th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$7.99
Children of Odin
by Padraic Colum
from Aladdin Paperbacks
Norse Mythology for 3rd-8th grade
$10.99
Children of Odin
by Padraic Colum, illustrated by Willy Pogany
from Macmillan
Norse Mythology for 3rd-8th grade
$40.00 (1 in stock)
Children of the Soil
by Nora Burglon, illustrations by Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire
1936 Printing from Doubleday, Doran & Company Inc.
for 3rd-6th grade
1933 Newbery Honor Book
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Chronicles of Narnia - Quality Softcover Boxed Set
by C. S. Lewis
from HarperCollins
Allegorical Fantasy for 3rd-9th grade
in Boxed Sets & Literature Packages (Location: FIC-BOX)
$90.93
Comet in Moominland
Moomintrolls Book #1
by Tove Jansson
from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
for 1st-7th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$8.99
Count of Monte Cristo (adapted)
by Alexandre Dumas, adapted by Edward Robinson and illustrated by Hamilton Greene
from Simon and Schuster
for 5th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths
by Edgar & Ingri D'Aulaire
from New York Review of Books
Norse Mythology for 3rd-8th grade
in Oversized Picture Books (Location: PIC-OVER)
$29.95
D'Aulaires' Book of Trolls
by Edgar & Ingri D'Aulaire
from New York Review of Books
for 3rd-6th grade
in Oversized Picture Books (Location: PIC-OVER)
$22.95
East of the Sun and West of the Moon
by Ingri & Edgar Parin D'Aulaire
from Viking Press
for Kindergarten-6th grade
East of the Sun and West of the Moon
by Kathleen & Michael Hague, retelling P. C. Asbjornsen
from Harcourt Brace Jovanich
for 2nd-5th grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
ECL: Adventures of Tom Sawyer
by Mark Twain, illustrated by Al Davidson
from BiblioLife
for 4th-8th grade
in Educator Classic Library (Location: VIN-ECL)
ECL: Andersen's Fairy Tales
by Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Brigitte Bryan
from Classic Press
for 3rd-6th grade
in Educator Classic Library (Location: VIN-ECL)
ECL: Black Beauty
Educator's Classic Library
by Anna Sewell, illustrated by Michael Rios
from Classic Press
for 3rd-7th grade
in Educator Classic Library (Location: VIN-ECL)
ECL: Jungle Book
Educators Classic Library #5
by Rudyard Kipling, illustrated by William Dempster
from Classic Press
in Educator Classic Library (Location: VIN-ECL)
ECL: Treasure Island
Educator Classic Library #1
by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by Don Irwin
Complete and Unabridged Edition from Classic Press
in Educator Classic Library (Location: VIN-ECL)
Eric Carle's Treasury of Classic Stories for Children
by Aesop, Hans Christian Andersen, the Brothers Grimm, retold & illustrated by Eric Carle
from Scholastic Inc.
for 3rd-6th grade
Eric the Red
Travel and Adventure Library for Young Folks
by Lida Siboni Hanson, illustrated by Ernst Hansen
from Doubleday, Doran & Company Inc.
for 4th-6th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Eyes on Jungle Doctor
Jungle Doctor #10
by Paul White
from Christian Focus Publications
for 3rd-6th grade
in Jungle Doctor (Location: SER-JD)
$8.99
Fairy Tales
by Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Margaret Tarrant
from Gallery Books
for 4th-8th grade
Fairy Tales and Stories
by Hans Christian Andersen, Edited by Signe Toksvig, Illustrated by George and Doris Hauman
from Macmillan
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$25.00 (1 in stock)
Fairy Tales by Hans Andersen
by Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Arthur Rackham
from George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd.
for 1st-6th grade
Fairy Tales by Hans Andersen
by Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Arthur Rackham
from Weathervane Books
for 1st-6th grade
Fairy Tales of Hans Christen Andersen
by Hans Christian Andersen, translated by Reginald Spink and illustrated by W. Heath Robinson
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 4th-6th grade
$18.00
Favourite Tales from Grimm and Andersen
by Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Jirí Trnka
1983 Printing from Paul Hamlyn
for 4th-8th grade
$18.00 (1 in stock)
Favourite Tales from Hans Christen Andersen
by Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Anastasiya Archipova
from Floris Books
for 4th-6th grade
Finn Family Moomintroll
Moomintrolls Book #2
by Tove Jansson
from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
for 1st-7th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$9.99
Five Weeks in a Balloon
by Jules Verne, translated by William Lackland and illustrated by Edouard Riou
Illustrated Fir from SeaWolf Press
for 5th-10th grade
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
$9.95
Flower Fables
by Louisa May Alcott
from Dover Publications
for 3rd-6th grade
$5.99
Folk Tales of Latin America
by Shirlee Newman, illustrated by Dorothy Rosenwasser and J. Correas Flores
1st edition from Bobbs-Merril Co
for 2nd-6th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Gift of the Magi
Dover Thrift Editions
by O. Henry
from Dover Publications
for 4th-10th grade
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$5.00 $2.00 (5 in stock)
Gift of the Magi
by O. Henry, illustrated by Kevin King
from Simon and Schuster
for 4th-10th grade
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Gift of the Magi and Other Stories
Books of Wonder
by O. Henry (illustrated by Michael Dooling)
from William Morrow & Company
for 4th-10th grade
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Gift of the Magi and Other Stories
Books of Wonder
by O. Henry, illustrated by Gordon Grant
from Reader's Digest
for 4th-10th grade
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Gift of the Magi and Other Stories
by O. Henry, illustrated by P. J. Lynch
from Candlewick Press
for 4th-10th grade
in Christmas & Advent (Location: HOLIDAY)
$17.99
Grimms' & Andersen's Fairy Tales Set
by Hans Christian Andersen & the Brothers Grimm, illustrated by Fritz Kredel and Arthur Szyk
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales
Puffin Classics
by Hans Christian Andersen, retold by Naomi Lewis
3rd edition from Puffin Books
Fairy Tales for 2nd-6th grade
in Puffin Classics (Location: FIC-PUF)
$7.99
Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales
by Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Louis Rhead
from SeaWolf Press
for 3rd-8th grade
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
$11.95
Hans Christian Andersen
by Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Michael Adams
from Unicorn Publishing House
for 2nd-5th grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales
by Hans Christian Andersen
from Penguin Classics
for 5th-10th grade
Hans Christian Andersen: The Complete Fairy Tales and Stories
by Hans Christian Andersen, Translated by Erik Christian Haugaard
1983 Anchor Books Edition from Anchor Books
for 2nd-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$27.00
Happy Times in Noisy Village
by Astrid Lindgren
from Bethlehem Books
Family Stories for 3rd-6th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$12.95
Hobbit
by J. R. R. Tolkien
2nd edition from Ballantine Books
Fantasy for 5th-9th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$8.99
Hobbit
by J. R. R. Tolkien
from Houghton Mifflin
Fantasy for 5th-9th grade
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$35.00
Hobbit
by J. R. R. Tolkien
from Houghton Mifflin
Fantasy for 5th-9th grade
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$19.99 $10.00 (1 in stock)
Hobbit
by J. R. R. Tolkien
from Houghton Mifflin
Fantasy for 5th-9th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$15.99
Hobbit
by J.R.R. Tolkien
from Houghton Mifflin
for 5th-Adult
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
Hobbit
by J. R. R. Tolkien
from Houghton Mifflin
Fantasy for 5th-9th grade
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$18.99
Hobbit & Lord of the Rings - Mass-Market Boxed Set
by J. R. R. Tolkien
Mti from Ballantine Books
Fantasy for 4th-12th grade
in Boxed Sets & Literature Packages (Location: FIC-BOX)
$35.96
Hobbit & Lord of the Rings - Softbound Boxed Set
by J. R. R. Tolkien
from Houghton Mifflin
Fantasy for 4th-12th grade
in Boxed Sets & Literature Packages (Location: FIC-BOX)
$72.00
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