Introducing Chapter House

The world's finest children's books, now available for pre-order.

I’ve been absent for a long time, and I’m sorry for that. I’ve spent nearly two years working on the project of a lifetime. A little over six years ago, we decided to pull my wife Hannah out of the public school system for a higher calling: Educating our three children. She spent many years developing a curriculum, and increasingly found wisdom in the children’s books of the past.

The only problem was that many were out of print, so she had to resort to digital copies read from an iPad, poor-quality print-on-demand editions, or, when we were lucky, very old copies.

We decided to fix that.

We wanted to not just merely reprint these children’s classics, but restore them to their original glory in beautiful clothbound hardbacks with restored original art, and in some cases, completely original art by the best artists.

Today, we are pleased to announce that what we have come to call Chapter House is now a reality.

We have spent the last year choosing, editing, restoring, and testing. The books are in production. The cover art is finished. The teaching guides are written. Now, pre-orders are live at chapter.house. The first print run will ship in June, and supplies are limited.

This post is an introduction to everything we are offering: Four curated box sets, each containing three classic books and a companion teaching guide, plus optional curriculum packages for families who want a complete homeschool program alongside the literature.

What Chapter House Is

Chapter House publishes classic children’s literature. We find the best editions of the best books, restore their original illustrations, add new art where the originals are lost or inadequate, write companion guides that help parents teach from what they have, and wrap them in beautiful box sets made in the United States of America.

Our books are chosen for three qualities:

• They are beautiful

• They are true

• They are worth reading aloud

A child who works through all four chapters will have encountered Æsop, Homer, Shakespeare, and most of the canonical stories of Western Civilization. He will have done it at the kitchen table, with a parent beside him, not in a classroom with a textbook.

Even though each Chapter builds on the one before it, you may begin at any point. The fables of Chapter I give way to the Norse myths and ancient history of Chapter II, which open into Homer and world history in Chapter III, which culminates in the Odyssey, British history, and Shakespeare in Chapter IV. Twelve books. Four box sets. A reading journey from Æsop to the Bard.

The Curriculum Packages

Alongside the four box sets, we offer optional curriculum packages designed to fill out your curriculum needs for a full school year. Each level pairs with a Chapter House box set, giving you more literature, math and handwriting. Hannah chose every title. These are the books we use with our own children.

These are not required. The box sets stand on their own. But for families who want a full year of learning materials in one place, we have you covered.

Chapter I: Heroes and Wonders

Æsop’s Fables: A Version for Young Readers

J. H. Stickney’s Æsop’s Fables (1915) is the best adaptation of Æsop we have found for the early years. Stickney understood that Æsop’s power lies in the stories themselves, not in the morals tacked on at the end. She trusts the child to understand without a lecture. This edition restores Charles Livingston Bull’s original illustrations.

A Child’s Book of Myths and Enchantment Tales for Children

Margaret Evans Price wrote these myths because she believed children deserve to meet the gods and heroes of the ancient world through beautiful art and language. A Child’s Book of Myths (1924) and Enchantment Tales for Children (1926) include 28 myths: Daedalus and Icarus, Cupid and Psyche, Hercules, Perseus and Medusa, and more. This edition restores all of Price’s original color illustrations and reintroduces Katharine Lee Bates’s original introductions. No other affordable, in-print edition does this.

Fifty Famous Stories Retold

James Baldwin’s Fifty Famous Stories Retold (1896) gathers the short tales that educated men and women once carried as common knowledge: King Alfred burning the cakes, the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae, William Tell, and Horatius holding the bridge. Each story runs two to four pages. This edition features five new color illustrations by Cortney Skinner.

The Complete Chapter I Package

The box set includes all three books plus a teaching guide with the founding essay “Virtus et Miraculum,” literary essays on each book, practical guidance for read-aloud sessions, a sample daily schedule, an introduction to homeschooling, a survey of educational philosophies, and more.

Included in the curriculum package for Kindergarten

• Let’s Play Math by Denise Gaskins

• Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting

• The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton W. Burgess

• The Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock

• James Herriot’s Treasury for Children by James Herriot

• Pooh’s Library by A. A. Milne

• Make Way for McCloskey by Robert McCloskey

• The Real Mother Goose by Blanche Fischer Wright

• Beatrix Potter: The Complete Tales by Beatrix Potter

• Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling

Included in the curriculum package for 1st Grade

• Math Mammoth 1-A and 1-B

• Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting

• Maps and Globes by Jack Knowlton

• The Burgess Animal Book for Children by Thornton W. Burgess

• Half Magic by Edward Eager

• Frog and Toad Storybook Favorites by Arnold Lobel

• Dr. Seuss’s Beginner Book Boxed Set by Dr. Seuss

• Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

• A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson

• Little Creatures: An Introduction to Classical Music by Ana Gerhard

Chapter II: Warriors and Giants

On the Shores of the Great Sea

M. B. Synge’s On the Shores of the Great Sea (1903) tells the story of the ancient Mediterranean world: Egypt, Phoenicia, Israel, Persia, Greece, and Rome, not as isolated episodes but as a continuous narrative. Biblical and secular history stand side by side, because in the ancient world they were not separate. This edition features three new illustrations by Cortney Skinner.

In the Days of Giants

Abbie Farwell Brown’s In the Days of Giants (1902) retells sixteen Norse myths with the drama and dry humor they deserve. Odin sacrifices his eye for wisdom. Thor’s chariot is pulled by goats. Loki is not Thor’s brother but his occasional companion and frequent tormentor. These are stories about sacrifice, cunning, loyalty, and the price of pride. This edition features new color renditions of E. Boyd Smith’s original illustrations.

Stories of Beowulf

H. E. Marshall’s Stories of Beowulf brings the three great episodes of the oldest surviving long poem in English within reach of a seven-year-old. Grendel is terrifying. The Water Witch is dark. The Dragon is real enough to give children nightmares. Marshall does not water it down; she trusts her readers. This edition includes three original illustrations by T. W. C. Shaw-Taylor.

The Complete Chapter II Package

The box set includes all three books plus a companion teaching guide with literary essays, practical guidance on the “ping pong” reading approach, and the same foundational material as the Chapter I teaching guide.

Included in the curriculum package for second grade

• Math Mammoth 2-A and 2-B

• Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting

• Paddle to the Sea by Holling C. Holling

• Saint George and the Dragon by Margaret Hodges

• The Cricket in Times Square George Selden

• Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher

• The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

• The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang

• The First Notes: The Story of Do Re Mi by Julie Andrews

• Discovering Great Artists by Maryann F. Kohl

Included in the third grade curriculum package

• Math Mammoth 3-A and 3-B

• Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting

• The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

• Getting Started with Spanish

• Minn of the Mississippi by Holling C. Holling

• American Tall Tales by Adrien Stoutenburg

• Hans Christian Andersen’s Complete Fairy Tales by Hans Chrstian Andersen

• The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald

• Music and How it Works

Chapter III: The Triumph of the West

The Story of the Iliad

Alfred J. Church’s The Story of the Iliad (1891) is the best introduction to Homer for young readers we have found. Church was a professor of Latin who knew the Greek text intimately. His retelling preserves the sweep and grandeur of the original while making it accessible to readers as young as eight. This edition features sixteen illustrations: New color art by Ruxandra Ionce alongside restored classic line art in the Flaxman style.

The Discovery of New Worlds

M. B. Synge’s The Discovery of New Worlds (1903) is the direct sequel to On the Shores of the Great Sea from Chapter II. It picks up at the height of the Roman Empire and carries the story through a thousand years: Augustus and Constantine, Charlemagne and the Vikings, the Crusades and the Black Death, Marco Polo and Columbus. A child who reads this book will come away understanding not just what happened, but why. This edition features three new illustrations by Cortney Skinner.

The Storybook of Science

Jean-Henri Fabre was one of the greatest naturalists who ever lived. Darwin called him “an incomparable observer.” His The Storybook of Science (1882) uses a simple frame: Uncle Paul sits with three children and answers their questions about the world. Eighty chapters cover zoology, botany, physics, earth science, and astronomy, moving between subjects as the children’s curiosity leads. This edition restores Fabre’s original illustrations and adds sixteen corrective footnotes where 19th-century science is outdated or potentially dangerous.

The Complete Chapter III Package

The box set includes all three books plus a companion pamphlet with literary essays on Homer, Synge, and Fabre, guidance for the late-elementary years including written narrations, and the same foundational material.

Included in the fourth grade curriculum package

• Math Mammoth 4-A and 4-B

• Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting

• Getting Started with Latin

• This Country of Ours by H. E. Marshall

• The Children’s Plutarch: Tales of the Greeks by F.J. Gould

• The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois

• The Chronicles of Narnia: Deluxe Edition by C. S. Lewis

• Heidi by Johanna Spyri

• My Side of the Mountain Trilogy by Jean Craighead George

Included in the fifth grade curriculum package

• Math Mammoth 5-A and 5-B

• Getty Dubay Italic Handwriting

• Keep Going with Latin

• The Children’s Plutarch: Tales of the Romans by F.J. Gould

• Famous Men of the MIddle Ages by John H. Haaren

• Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

• Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

• Great Inventors and their Inventions by Frank P. Bachman

• The Hardy Boys by Franklin W. Dixon

• Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Chapter IV: The Odyssey of Europe

The Story of the Odyssey

If the Iliad is a story about war, the Odyssey is a story about what comes after. King Odysseus spends ten years trying to get home. He blinds a cyclops, resists the Sirens, descends to the realm of the dead, and returns to find his hall full of men who have given him up for dead. Church’s The Story of the Odyssey is the direct companion to his Story of the Iliad from Chapter III, told in the same clear prose. This edition features sixteen illustrations: New color art by Ruxandra Ionce alongside restored Flaxman-style line art.

Our Island Story

H. E. Marshall’s Our Island Story (1905) covers the entire sweep of British history in 110 chapters, from its mythological origins through the death of Queen Victoria. Marshall includes King Arthur and Robin Hood alongside the Magna Carta and Agincourt, because she understood that the tall tales of a civilization are as important as its verified facts. For American families, this is not a foreign story. The founding fathers were British. Understanding Britain is understanding ourselves. This edition restores all of A. S. Forrest’s original color illustrations.

Tales from Shakespeare

Charles and Mary Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare (1807) has been introducing children to the plays for over two centuries. Their method is elegant: Retell each play as prose, preserving Shakespeare’s own language wherever the story will bear it, so that a child absorbs the rhythms and vocabulary without realizing it. Twenty plays are included. This edition restores more than thirty illustrations by Louis Rhead, a feature no other in-print edition provides.

The Complete Chapter IV Package

The box set includes all three books plus a teaching guide with literary essays on the Odyssey, British heritage, and Shakespeare, guidance for upper-elementary reading, and the same foundational material.

Included in the Sixth Grade Curriculum Package

• Math Mammoth 6-A and 6-B

• Always with Honor: The Graphic Novels by Alex Wisner

• From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweilier by E.L. Konigsburg

• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle

• Old Peter’s Russian Tales by Arthur Ransome

• Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defore

• The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien

• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

• King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green

Pre-Order Details

All four box sets and all seven curriculum packages are available for pre-order at chapter.house. They will ship in June.

Box sets are approximately $99.50 each and include three books plus a companion pamphlet. Or, you can purchase all of the Chapter House books at a discounted price of $398. Curriculum packages are priced separately and pair naturally with their corresponding Chapter House box set, though they can be used on their own.

We are taking this step because we believe these books matter. They are not textbooks. They are not assignments. They are the stories that have formed generations of readers, restored to the editions that originally served them well, and put in your hands with the confidence that your children will be richer for having read them.