In today’s video, I’m sharing the assigned readers I mapped out for my eighth grader, Lydia, for the 2025–2026 homeschool year. Choosing a full year of books for her is honestly very challenging because she likes to read whatever she wants, whenever she wants—she’s a big graphic novel and comic kid. But this year I really wanted to focus on getting more “traditional” books back into her routine, while still letting her enjoy the fun stuff in between. I walk through four main areas: history readers, language arts reading, her personal silent reading, and then science readers that go along with our unit studies. For history, I’m pulling from a list that (thankfully) includes a lot of books that have been sitting on my own reading list for years, like Bound for Oregon and Across Five Aprils. For language arts, we’re using The Good and the Beautiful Level 7 Favorite Classics Reader, and for fun independent reading we’re giving Percy Jackson a try—starting with The Lightning Thief and continuing only if she’s enjoying it. I’m also adding read-aloud-to-me books with a big focus on silly poetry (Shel Silverstein), plus short, meaningful reads like The Missing Piece. For science, since we’re doing unit studies, I’m pairing a shorter reader with a reference-style field guide for reptiles, birds, and dinosaurs.