We picked up the Medieval Castle book as part of our preparation for our upcoming trip to England. I wanted Izzy to have a good idea of what to expect when we tour castles. It seems a lot of people don't really understand what a castle actually is - until really see one in person. They are not lavish fairy tale-like residences. Instead they were built primarily with defense and fortification in mind (vs. comfort and luxury) and are therefore rather forbidding structures. In college I recall having my mind blown when I toured the famous Alcazar of Isabel and Ferdinand in Segovia. I was struck by how austere it was. We followed that tour up with a visit to the nearby La Granja - the luxurious 18th century palace of Philip V (often called the Versailles of Spain). It was then that the difference really sunk in for me. And so I wanted to prepare my little fairy tale and princess obsessed girl. She'd already suffered a crushing blow when she saw a picture of Elizabeth II - why, she's just an old lady!!This is a fantastic book for illustrating the reality of life in a castle. Facts are that the overwhelming majority of people who lived in a castle would have been servants. And so this book asks children to imagine they are a little servant girl in the local castle. Not only is the work and lifestyle far from glamorous - including regular beatings and a bed that's a bit too near the garderobe (aka the crapper) - but it also gets dangerous when the castle comes under siege by King John. Our young protagonist must treat the wounded and dying while the food supplies dwindle. I'm making it sound a bit more bleak than it really is. It's really more entertaining and interesting than it is horrifying. The format is a kind of picture book/graphic novel hybrid with illustrations that will likely be very appealing to children.
*FYI - the castle in the book is based on Rochester Castle in Kent.
Since this was such a huge success we followed it up with the Egyptian mummy book. This was a logical choice as we plan to tour the British Museum in London and I thought it would be nice for Izzy to have some background information as we plan to focus on the Ancient Egyptian collection. And again we were not disappointed. I thought it was slightly less engaging than the castle book as the 'protagonist' is basically a dead man (vs. a child), but it's still lots of fun. As you might expect this book is full of gross out details which will be very memorable to young readers.
Then imagine my delight when Izzy comes home from school on Tuesday with the Cleopatra book! She is dressing up as Cleopatra for Halloween so it's the perfect book to read this week. I was doubly delighted when she started reading it to me from the backseat of the car. The significance of this is that these are not 'easy' books. They are presented in an engaging and somewhat simple format, but they introduce complicated vocabulary (sarcophagus, trebuchet) and concepts (exile, almonry) and history (Magna Carta, Battle of Actium). This goes to show that children will exceed expectations when the interest level is there! This is VITAL when selecting books for children!I am hugely impressed by these books because they do what so many Social Studies/History classes fail to do - get kids EXCITED about history. What makes history truly fascinating is the human drama of it all and yet somehow teachers and textbooks find a way to suck the life out of it - boiling it down to a list of places, names and dates. I suppose they do this to make it 'appropriate' for children (and nowadays prep them for standardized testing), but I think it ultimately fails children on so many levels.
There are MANY more titles in this series (click here to learn more) and you better believe we'll be reading most of them!
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