What books are similar to The Story of Mankind?

The 10 closest matches to The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon on ReadingList include Lincoln: A Photobiography, Dear Dad: Growing Up With a Parent in Prison - And How We Stayed Connected, Is It Real?: The Loch Ness Monster, Now Is Your Time, and Polar: Wildlife at the Ends of the Earth. Each is scored on shared themes, shared award lists, genre, and reading level (grades 3–7), and links to the curricula, states, and grades where it is assigned in US schools, with primary sources.

Are books like The Story of Mankind reading-level appropriate?

Yes — every match is a reading-level match, not just a topical one, scored on Lexile and grade band (grades 3–7), so the picks stay grade-appropriate. See how ReadingList judges text difficulty on the /standard methodology page.

How does ReadingList choose similar books?

Matches are ranked by shared themes, shared award and reading-program lists (two books picked for the same state award were chosen by the same committees for the same readers), same genre, comparable Lexile and grade band, and publication decade — computed from cited public curriculum data, not editorial opinion or AI-generated summaries.

Books like The Story of Mankind

If you liked The Story of Mankind, read Lincoln: A Photobiography or Dear Dad: Growing Up With a Parent in Prison - And How We Stayed Connected — the closest matches in our database, matched on shared award lists and reading level.

Closest match: Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman

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Looking for books like The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon (Juvenile Nonfiction · grades 3–7)? The 10 titles below are the closest matches in the ReadingList database — each scored on shared themes, shared award lists, genre, and reading level, and each linked to the curricula, states, and grades where it’s assigned, with primary sources.

These are reading-level matches, not just topical ones — so the picks stay grade-appropriate for a grades 3–7 reader. See how we judge text difficulty on our methodology page.

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Why each is a match

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Lincoln: A Photobiographygrades 3–7: Both on the Newbery Medal list, same genre (Juvenile Nonfiction), and overlapping grades (3–7). Amazon → books like this →
Dear Dad: Growing Up With a Parent in Prison - And How We Stayed Connectedgrades 4–5: Same genre (Juvenile Nonfiction) and overlapping grades (4–5). Amazon → books like this →
Is It Real?: The Loch Ness Monstergrades 4–5: Same genre (Juvenile Nonfiction) and overlapping grades (4–5). Amazon → books like this →
Now Is Your Timegrades 4–8: Same genre (Juvenile Nonfiction) and overlapping grades (4–8). Amazon → books like this →
Polar: Wildlife at the Ends of the Earthgrades 4–5: Same genre (Juvenile Nonfiction) and overlapping grades (4–5). Amazon → books like this →
Maid for Itgrades 6–8: Same genre (Juvenile Nonfiction) and overlapping grades (6–8). Amazon → books like this →
The Astronaut's Guide to Leaving the Planetgrades 6–8: Same genre (Juvenile Nonfiction) and overlapping grades (6–8). Amazon → books like this →
Weirdogrades 6–8: Same genre (Juvenile Nonfiction) and overlapping grades (6–8). Amazon → books like this →
Wish I Was a Ballergrades 6–8: Same genre (Juvenile Nonfiction) and overlapping grades (6–8). Amazon → books like this →
Gay Neck, The Story of a Pigeon & Ghond The Huntergrades 3–7: Both on the Newbery Medal list, overlapping grades (3–7), and the same era (1920s). Amazon → books like this →

Common questions

What books are similar to The Story of Mankind?: The 10 closest matches to The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon on ReadingList include Lincoln: A Photobiography, Dear Dad: Growing Up With a Parent in Prison - And How We Stayed Connected, Is It Real?: The Loch Ness Monster, Now Is Your Time, and Polar: Wildlife at the Ends of the Earth. Each is scored on shared themes, shared award lists, genre, and reading level (grades 3–7), and links to the curricula, states, and grades where it is assigned in US schools, with primary sources.
Are books like The Story of Mankind reading-level appropriate?: Yes — every match is a reading-level match, not just a topical one, scored on Lexile and grade band (grades 3–7), so the picks stay grade-appropriate. See how ReadingList judges text difficulty on the /standard methodology page.
How does ReadingList choose similar books?: Matches are ranked by shared themes, shared award and reading-program lists (two books picked for the same state award were chosen by the same committees for the same readers), same genre, comparable Lexile and grade band, and publication decade — computed from cited public curriculum data, not editorial opinion or AI-generated summaries.

Book data last updated 2026-09-05. Matches are computed from each book’s cited attributes — see the methodology.

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Books like The Story of Mankind

10 books similar to The Story of Mankind

Why each is a match

Common questions

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