Books that meet high moral standards and contain limited foul language, sexual content, and descriptions of violence.
- Before using this list, please read my disclaimer.
- Every book on this list meets “My Clean Reading Criteria” and is one that I finished, liked, and felt was worth my time to read. To learn more about the purpose of this list please see “About Novaun Novels.”
- For information on how I classify religious fiction, please see “Is Fiction Marketed to Latter-day Saints ‘Christian Fiction’?” For how I evaluate religious content in the books I read, please see “What About Doctrinal Differences?“
- All descriptions in quotation marks come from the book jackets or other descriptions from the publishers. Follow the author links to the corresponding Project Gutenberg pages. Follow the title links to the page, post, or Goodreads review that contains my commentary on the book.
Eight Cousins (Juvenile American classic)
“After the death of her father, orphan Rose Campbell has no choice but to go and live at the ‘Aunt Hill’ with her six aunts and seven boy cousins.”
Rose in Bloom (Young Adult American classic)
“In this sequel to Eight Cousins, Rose Campbell returns to the ‘Aunt Hill’ after two years of traveling around the world. Suddenly, she is surrounded by male admirers, all expecting her to marry them. But before she marries anyone, Rose is determined to establish herself as an independent young woman.”
Little Women (Young Adult American classic)
“Meg, the eldest and most beautiful, shrugs off her vanity and social ambition, discovering fulfillment in romantic love. Boyish Jo on the other hand, with her contempt of all ‘lovering’, turns impetuously towards writing for solace. Gentle Beth rejects worldly interests, preferring to devote her life to her family, to the joy of music and to timidly aiding all who suffer in life. Amy, the youngest and most imperfect of the March girls, continually tries to overcome her selfishness and girlish pretensions, though he has a hard task before her.”
Bishop, Claire Huchet
Twenty and Ten, a.k.a. The Secret Cave (Juvenile historical fiction)
“During the Nazi occupation of France, twenty ordinary French kids in a boarding school agree to hide ten Jewish children. Then German soldiers arrive. Will the children be able to withstand the interrogation and harassment?”
The Secret Garden (Juvenile American classic)
“Born in India, the unattractive and willful Mary Lennox has remained in the care of servants for as long as she can remember. But the girl’s life changes when her mother and father die and she travels to Yorkshire to live with her uncle. Dark, dreary Misselthwaite Manor seems full of mysteries, including a very special garden, locked tight for 10 years. With the help of Dickon, a local boy, Mary intends to uncover its secrets.”
Forbes, Esther
Johnny Tremain (Young Adult historical fiction)
“Fourteen-year old Johnny Tremain, an apprentice silversmith with a bright future ahead of him, injures his hand in a tragic accident, forcing him to look for other work. In his new job as a horse-boy, riding for the patriotic newspaper, the Boston Observer, and as a messenger for the Sons of Liberty, he encounters John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and Dr. Joseph Warren.”
Konigsburg, E.L.
A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver (Juvenile historical fiction)
A biographical novel about Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife to two kings and mother to two others.
Lane, Rose Wilder
Young Pioneers, previously published as Let the Hurricane Roar (Young Adult historical fiction)
“Newlyweds Molly and David are only sixteen and eighteen years old when they pack up their wagon and head west across the plains in search of a new homestead. At first their new life is full of promise: The wheat is high, the dugout is warm and cozy, and a new baby is born to share in their happiness. Then disaster strikes, and David must go east for the winter to find work. Molly is left alone with the baby—with nothing but her own courage to face the dangers of the harsh prairie winter.”
L’Engle, Madeleine
The Austin Family Chronicles (Young Adult fiction)
1. Meet the Austins
“For a family with four kids, two dogs, assorted cats, and a constant stream of family and friends dropping by, life in the Austin family home has always been remarkably steady and contented. When a family friend suddenly dies in a plane crash, the Austins open their home to an orphaned girl, Maggy Hamilton.”
“Vicky Austin is filled with uncertainties about everything. Her parents call it Vicky’s ‘difficult year.’ But fourteen-year-old Vicky is not so consumed with her problems that she can’t enjoy the exciting adventures of her family’s summer cross-country camping trip.”
“With the Austins going in different directions, they don’t notice that something sinister is going on in their neighborhood—and it’s centered around them. . . . If they don’t start telling each other what’s going on, someone just might get killed.”
“After a tumultuous year in New York City, the Austins are spending the summer on the small island where their grandfather lives. He’s very sick, and watching his condition deteriorate as the summer passes is almost more than Vicky can bear. To complicate matters, she finds herself as the center of attention for three very different boys.”
“For her birthday, Vicky receives the gift of a trip to the Antarctic, where her friend Adam Eddington is working as a marine biologist. But as Vicky meets her fellow travelers, it quickly becomes clear that some of them are not what they seem. Vicki’s trip into adventure becomes a journey into icy danger.”
Lovelace, Maud Hart
Betsy-Tacy Series (historical fiction)
1. Betsy-Tacy (Juvenile)
“From the moment they meet at Betsy’s fifth birthday party, Betsy and Tacy become such good friends that everyone starts to think of them as one person—Betsy-Tacy.”
2. Betsy-Tacy and Tib (Juvenile)
“[The girls] are not as good as they might be. They cook up awful messes in the kitchen, throw mud on each other and pretend to be beggars, and cut off each other’s hair. But Betsy, Tacy, and Tib always manage to have a good time.”
3. Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill (Juvenile)
“The girls fall in love with the King of Spain, perform in the School Entertainment, and for the first time, go all the way over the Big Hill to Little Syria by themselves. There Betsy, Tacy, and Tib make new friends and learn a thing or two.”
4. Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown (Juvenile)
“Betsy, Tacy, and Tib are twelve—old enough to do lots of things…even go downtown on their own. There they see their first horseless carriage, discover the joys of the public library, and see a real play at the Opera House. They even find themselves acting in one!”
5. Heaven to Betsy (Young Adult)
“High School is Heaven! It’s Betsy Ray’s freshman year at Deep Valley High School, and she and her best childhood chum, Tacy Kelly, are loving every minute.”
6. Betsy in Spite of Herself (Young Adult)
“Whether she’s carrying out her duties as class secretary, trying to charm the exasperating Joe Willard, or juggling the demands of rhetoricals, football games, parties, and exams, Betsy’s got her hands full.”
7. Betsy Was a Junior (Young Adult)
“Betsy’s luck takes a bad turn. The Crowd is getting into trouble at school, and Betsy isn’t given a chance to compete in the annual Essay Contest. Could Betsy’s best school year turn out to be her worst?”
8. Betsy and Joe (Young Adult)
“Betsy Ray has always thought that she and the fascinating Joe Willard would make the perfect couple. Now, in her senior year at Deep Valley High School, it looks as though she’ll get her wish.”
9. Betsy and the Great World (Young Adult)
“It’s the trip of a lifetime. Betsy Ray, 21 years old, is heading off for a solo tour of Europe. From the moment she casts off, her journey is filled with adventure—whether she’s waltzing at the captain’s ball, bartering for beads in Madeira, or sipping coffee at a bohemian cafe in Munich.”
10. Betsy’s Wedding (Young Adult)
“Betsy returns from Europe to marry Joe Willard—and soon learns that beloved friend Tacy is expecting a baby! It’s wartime in America, but Betsy, Joe, and their wonderful circle of friends brave their hardships together.”
Anne of Green Gables series (Canadian classics):
1. Anne of Green Gables (Juvenile)
As soon as Anne Shirley arrived at the snug, white farmhouse called Green Gables, she knew she wanted to stay forever… but would the Cuthberts send her back to the orphanage? Anne knows she’s not what they expected–a skinny girl with decidedly red hair and a temper to match. If only she could convince them to let her stay, she’d try very hard not to keep rushing headlong into scrapes or blurt out the very first thing she had to say.
2. Anne of Avonlea (Young Adult)
At sixteen, Anne is grown up…almost. Her gray eyes shine like evening stars, but her red hair is still as peppery as her temper. . . . When Anne begins her job as the new schoolteacher, the real test of her character begins. Along with teaching the three Rs, she is learning how complicated life can be when she meddles in someone else’s romance, finds two new orphans at Green Gables, and wonders about the strange behaviour of the very handsome Gilbert Blythe.
3. Anne of the Island (Young Adult)
“New adventures lie ahead as Anne Shirley packs her bags, waves good-bye to childhood, and heads for Redmond College. With old friend Prissy Grant waiting in the bustling city of Kingsport and frivolous new pal Philippa Gordon at her side, Anne tucks her memories of rural Avonlea away and discovers life on her own terms, filled with surprises…including a marriage proposal from the worst fellow imaginable, the sale of her very first story, and a tragedy that teaches her a painful lesson.”
4. Anne of Windy Poplars (Young Adult)
“Anne Shirley has left Redmond College behind to begin a new job and a new chapter of her life away from Green Gables. Now she faces a new challenge: the Pringles. They’re known as the royal family of Summerside—and they quickly let Anne know she is not the person they had wanted as principal of Summerside High School. But as she settles into the cozy tower room at Windy Poplars, Anne finds she has great allies in the widows Aunt Kate and Aunt Chatty—and in their irrepressible housekeeper, Rebecca Dew.”
5. Anne’s House of Dreams (Young Adult)
“A new life means fresh problems to solve, fresh surprises. Anne and Gilbert will make new friends and meet their neighbors: Captain Jim, the lighthouse attendant, with his sad stories of the sea; Miss Cornelia Bryant, the lady who speaks from the heart—and speaks her mind; and the tragically beautiful Leslie Moore, into whose dark life Anne shines a brilliant light.”
6. Anne of Ingleside (Young Adult)
“Anne is the mother of five, with never a dull moment in her lively home. And now, with a new baby on the way and insufferable Mary Maria visiting—and wearing out her welcome—Anne’s life is full to bursting.”
7. Rainbow Valley (Juvenile)
“[Anne’s] boys and girls discover a special place all their own, but they never dream of what will happen when the strangest family moves into an old nearby mansion. The Meredith clan is two boys and two girls, with minister father but no mother—and a runaway girl named Mary Vance. Soon the Meredith kids join Anne’s children in their private hideout to carry out their plans to save Mary from the orphanage, to help the lonely minister find happiness, and to keep a pet rooster from the soup pot.”
8. Rilla of Ingleside (Young Adult)
“Rilla, almost fifteen, can’t think any further ahead than going to her very first dance at the Four Winds lighthouse and getting her first kiss from handsome Kenneth Ford. But undreamed-of challenges await the irrepressible Rilla when the world of Ingleside is endangered by a far-off war.”
Sheila A. Neilson
Lifelike (Young Adult paranormal romance)
“When tragedy strikes sixteen-year-old Wren’s family, she can’t see the point in starting over again, especially when her future seems so uncertain and her heart so heavy. After she is sent to stay with her favorite aunt, who lives in a doll museum, Wren quickly discovers two creepily lifelike dolls hidden inside the walls of the old house. Dolls that were created to look like two very real people–a dangerously handsome young man and his mysteriously beautiful fiancée—a young woman he supposedly murdered a few weeks before their wedding day.”
1. Freckles (Young Adult American classic)
“Abandoned as an infant and given only a nickname by the orphanage, Freckles is hired by kind Mr. McLean to guard a stretch of valuable timber in the wild Limberlost swamp of Indiana. . . . His happiness would be complete if only he could solve the mystery of his birth.”
2. A Girl of the Limberlost (Young Adult American classic)
“Gradually Elnora uncovers the [Limberlost]’s many mysteries, including a dark secret about her father and the key to the love her mother has hidden from her for so long.”
Richter, Conrad
The Light in the Forest (Young Adult historical fiction)
“When John Cameron Butler was a child, he was captured in a raid on the Pennsylvania frontier and adopted by the great warrior Cuyloga. Renamed True Son, he came to think of himself as fully Indian. But eleven years later his tribe, the Lenni Lenape, has signed a treaty with the white men and agreed to return their captives, including fifteen-year-old True Son. Now he must go back to the family he has forgotten, whose language is no longer his, and whose ways of dress and behavior are as strange to him as the ways of the forest are to them.”
Snyder, Zilpha Keatley
The Egypt Game (Juvenile mystery)
“The first time Melanie Ross meets April Hall, she’s not sure they have anything in common. But she soon discovers that they both love anything to do with ancient Egypt. When they stumble upon a deserted storage yard, Melanie and April decide it’s the perfect spot for the Egypt Game. Before long there are six Egyptians, and they all meet to wear costumes, hold ceremonies, and work on their secret code. Everyone thinks it’s just a game until strange things start happening. Has the Egypt Game gone too far?”
Speare, Elizabeth George
The Bronze Bow (Young Adult historical fiction)
“This gripping, action-packed novel tells the story of eighteen-year-old Daniel bar Jamin—a fierce, hotheaded young man bent on revenging his father’s death by forcing the Romans from his land of Israel. Daniel’s palpable hatred for Romans wanes only when he starts to hear the gentle lessons of the traveling carpenter, Jesus of Nazareth”
The Witch of Blackbird Pond (Young Adult historical fiction)
“Orphaned Kit Tyler knows, as she gazes for the first time at the cold, bleak shores of Connecticut Colony, that her new home will never be like the shimmering Caribbean island she left behind. . . . The only place where Kit feels completely free is in the meadows, where she enjoys the company of the old Quaker woman known as the Witch of Blackbird Pond, and on occasion, her young sailor friend Nat. But when Kit’s friendship with the “witch” is discovered, Kit is faced with suspicion, fear, and anger. She herself is accused of witchcraft!”
Sperry, Armstrong
Call it Courage (Juvenile historical fiction)
“Mafatu’s name means “Stout Heart,” but his people call him a coward. Ever since the sea took his mother’s life and spared his own, he has lived with deep fear. And even though his father is the Great Chief of Hikueru—an island whose seafaring people worship courage—he is terrified, and consequently, he is severely scorned. By the time he is twelve years old, Mafatu can bear it no longer. He must conquer his fear alone. . . even if it means certain death.”
Taylor, Sydney
All-of-a-Kind Family (Juvenile historical fiction)
“It’s the turn of the century in New York’s Lower East Side and a sense of adventure and excitement abounds for five young sisters—Ella, Henny, Sarah, Charlotte and Gertie. Follow along as they search for hidden buttons while dusting Mama’s front parlor, or explore the basement warehouse of Papa’s peddler’s shop on rainy days. The five girls enjoy doing everything together, especially when it involves holidays and surprises. But no one could have prepared them for the biggest surprise of all!”
Taylor, Theodore
The Cay (Juvenile historical fiction)
“Phillip is excited when the Germans invade the small island of Curaçao. War has always been a game to him, and he’s eager to glimpse it firsthand–until the freighter he and his mother are traveling to the United States on is torpedoed. When Phillip comes to, he is on a small raft in the middle of the sea. Besides Stew Cat, his only companion is an old West Indian, Timothy.”.
Daddy-Long-Legs (Young Adult American classic)
“A trustee of the John Grier orphanage has offered to send Judy Abbott to college. The only requirements are that she must write to him every month, and that she can never know who he is. Judy’s life at college is a whirlwind of friends, classes, parties, and a growing friendship with the handsome Jervis Pendleton. With so much happening in her life, Judy can scarcely stop writing to the mysterious ‘Daddy-Long-Legs’!”
Whitney, Phyllis A.
Mystery of the Green Cat (Juvenile mystery)
“Andy and his twin brother are having a hard time getting used to their new stepsisters. But on one thing the four of them agree: they are determined to find the mysterious china cat and learn its sinister secret.”
Wilder, Laura Ingalls
Little House series (Juvenile historical fiction)
1. Little House in the Big Woods
“Wolves and panthers and bears roamed the deep Wisconsin woods in the 1860’s. Still, Laura Ingalls’ father preferred to live miles away from the nearest neighbors. So Pa built a snug cabin for Ma, Laura, Mary and Baby Carrie. He hunted and trapped and farmed. Ma made her own cheese and sugar. All night long, the wind howled lonesomely, but Pa played his fiddle and sang, keeping the family safe and cozy.”
2. Little House on the Prairie
“Laura Ingalls is heading west! The Ingalls family packs up their covered wagon and sets off for the big skies of the Kansas Territory, where wide open land stretches as far as the eye can see. Just when they begin to feel settled, they are caught in the middle of a dangerous conflict.”
4. On the Banks of Plum Creek
“Laura and her family find a new home in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, where the nearby creek and swimming hole lure Laura with dangerous, yet thrilling adventures. Too soon, their life is threatened when prairie fires and other strange events jeopardize their crops.”
5. By the Shores of Silver Lake
“Laura and her family are head to the Dakota Territory for a chance to own their own land–and stop moving. The new town of De Smet is filling up with settlers lured west by the promise of free land, and the Ingalls family must do whatever it takes too defend their claim.”
6. The Long Winter
“The town of De Smet is hit with terrible, howling blizzards and Laura and her family must ration their food and coal. When the supply train doesn’t arrive, Almanzo Wilder and his brother realize something must be done. They begin an impossible journey in search of provisions, before it’s too late.”
7. Little Town on the Prairie
“The long winter is finally over, and with spring comes a new job for Laura, town parties, and more time to spend with Almanzo Wilder. Laura also tries to help Pa and Ma save money for Mary to go to college.”
8. These Happy Golden Years
“Fifteen-year-old Laura lives apart from her family for the first time, teaching school in a claim shanty twelve miles from home. She is very homesick, but keeps at it so that she can help pay for her sister Mary’s tuition at the college for the blind. During school vacations Laura has fun with her singing lessons, going on sleigh rides, and best of all, helping Almanzo Wilder drive his new buggy.”
The featured image “Spinning Forest” is Copyright © 2022 by Katherine Padilla. All rights reserved.
