You Wouldn't Want to Be a Slave in Ancient Greece by Fiona MacDonald and David Antram

A fun way to get your essential bits of history 

As a history teacher, I think just about all of history is fascinating - the cultural tidbits, the technology, the religious beliefs, the wars, the governments. It's all fascinating! But...convincing my students is another matter entirely.

This series does an excellent job of looking at history from an interesting point of view and showing why it was tough. The art is accessible and just cartoonish enough to not be one of those boring illustrations that fill history books and plenty realistic enough that to clearly see and understand what is going on (for example, the women who are weaving on pages 16 & 17 are cartoonish but their loom looks pretty realistic).

In You Wouldn't Want to Be a Slave in Ancient Greece, you learn a lot about slavery in general that can be applied to any time - the drudgery and humiliation, the loss of freedom and the uncertainty. There is also a lot of Ancient Greece-specific information such as their attitudes towards foreigners and women.

I'd recommend this book for students in grade 4 or higher. I'd even recommend it for adults that want a little pain-free learning!

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

Reviewed on June 9, 2009.

You Wouldn't Want to Live in a Medieval Castle by Jacqueline Morley

Historically solid and entertaining.

Published in 2008.

I just discovered this series and I've been reading a few of them for fun this summer.

You Wouldn't Want to Live In A Medieval Castle is entertaining and it contains solid, accurate history presented in a visually interesting format.

While I've been looking a few of these over for my own personal entertainment, my almost 4th grade daughter has been sneaking them out of the stack and reading them without any encouragement from me. 

The book mostly is about a little girl who is brought into a castle to work as a damsel (lady-in-waiting or a body servant). The book is also about a real historical event - the siege of Rochester Castle in Kent, England in 1215 by King John who is having trouble dealing with the barons after he signed the Magna Carta.

There is also quite a bit about a young page who is trying to become a squire so that he might become a knight someday.

Everyday life in the castle is discussed (carrying water for baths, common dining areas, sleeping arrangements, daily Mass, etc.) and so are the details of laying siege to and the defense of a castle.

The only problem I had with the book is a simple matter of labeling. On pages 8 & 9 they have a map of the Bailey (the interior of the fortifications). On the key they label things like the chandlery and the barracks without telling what they are. They are defined in the glossary in the back but a word or two on the map page would have been nice.

Still, I highly recommend this book for kids who are in 4th grade or higher. Also, for any adults who want a painless refresher on castles and medieval life!

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: You Wouldn't Want to Live in a Medieval Castle. 

Reviewed on June 11, 2009.

You Wouldn't Want to Live In Pompeii by John Malam and David Salariya

This is a great series

Published in 2008.

I recently stumbled onto the You Wouldn't Want to... series and have found them to be a delightful and painless way to introduce young people to different historical concepts.

You Wouldn't Want to Live In Pompeii is a standout in a standout series of books. It teaches about the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79 that destroyed Pompeii, but it also teaches about Roman culture. The readers will learn that the Romans used enslaved Greek men as teachers for their sons, that the Romans made sacrifices to their gods, foods they ate, types of art, the gladiatorial games and the rediscovery of Pompeii in the 1700s and, more importantly, the archaeological work of Giuseppe Fiorelli in the late 1800s.

This would be great for 3rd grade or higher. Even adults can have a good basic understanding of what happened at Pompeii with this little book.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: You Wouldn't Want to Live in Pompeii: A Volcanic Eruption You'd Rather Avoid.

Reviewed on June 12, 2009.

You Wouldn't Want to Be a Roman Gladiator!: Gory Things You'd Rather Not Know by John Malam and David Salariya.

An entertaining, historically solid book - for 4th graders and over

Originally published in 2001 by Franklin Watts.

Illustrated by David Antram.

You Wouldn,t Want to Be a Roman Gladiator! is entertaining and it contains solid, accurate history presented in a visually interesting format.

While I've been looking a few of the books from this series for my own personal entertainment, my almost 4th grade daughter has been sneaking them out of the stack and reading them without any encouragement from me. Imagine! Kids surreptitiously reading history!

The book details the life of a gladiator that is captured as a slave in battle in Gaul. We follow him to his sale in the market and what kind of jobs he might have been sent to (in the mines, as a galley slave, on the farm, etc.) The slave is sent to gladiator school and we learn about their training, what they ate, the different types of gladiators and how they were punished. We learn about different types of gladiator fights and how gladiator fights were generally organized.

Well done. It should be a welcome part of any Rome unit from 4th grade and up.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: You Wouldn't Want to Be a Roman Gladiator!: Gory Things You'd Rather Not Know.

Reviewed June 14, 2009.

Fields of Fury: The American Civil War by James McPherson

A great introduction to the Civil War by a first-rate historian

Published in 2002

Pulitzer Prize winner James McPherson's foray into children's literature, Fields of Fury: The American Civil War is a beautiful, well-written book that fits the bill perfectly.

McPherson briefly covers all aspects of the conflict, from "Bleeding Kansas" to the difficulties in Reconstruction. As a Civil War buff (I have over 75 books and have read dozens more) I can think of no main topic he did not touch upon. In fact, I added a few stories to my repertoire for my classes.

Most topics are covered with a two page spread - text on the even pages and a full page photo, map or painting spread on the facing page. Also, with every topic there is a "Quick Facts" section.

A famous photo of an escaped
slave named Gordon. This is one
tough images I mention in the
review. The picture is entitled
"The Scourged Back"

McPherson's descriptions of the personalities, the battles and the general strategies of the war are first-rate. He also touches on such topics as how the war was financed, the role of women in the war, the difficulties faced at home by the families of the soldiers.

 The publisher recommends this book for 4th to 8th graders. I would have to say 5th-8th graders. There are some graphic images of the war, including famous, but still arresting, photos of African Americans digging up buried soldiers (with 6 skulls and a leg still wearing a boot and pants on a litter) for re-burial and a photo of an escaped slave showing his heavily scarred back courtesy of repeated whippings from his owner. Also, the text about the Battle of Shiloh mentions an eyewitness account of a man who was leaning against a tree with his bloated intestines piled up in his lap. I'm not against children learning the awful truth of war and slavery but I'd wait one more year before introducing those images to kids.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Fields of Fury: The American Civil War

Reviewed on June 16, 2009.

Inkheart (Inkheart Trilogy, Book 1) by Cornelia Funke

ALA Notable Children’s Book Award Winner.

Winner of the Book Sense Book of the Year Children's Literature Award.

Published in 2003.

I saw the ads for the Inkheart movie and decided to read the book first because, as everyone knows, the book is almost always better than the movie.

Anyway, the Inkheart book in built upon a interesting premise - the people and characters from a fantasy novel come to life. 

I do not give the book 5 stars. The book is a dark piece of fiction - relentlessly so. The mood is nearly always somber and I found the book compelling but often depressing.

The plot is fairly simple and the bad men in the book do a lot more threatening than real evil, but they do evil things - mutilations, burning people out of their homes, kidnappings, blackmail, and so on.

I have no problem with books that depict that evil exists in the world. As C.S. Lewis noted:

"Those who say that children must not be frightened may mean two things. They may mean (1) that we must not do anything likely to give the child those haunting, disabling, pathological fears against which ordinary courage is helpless: in fact, phobias. His mind must, if possible, be kept clear of things he can't bear to think of. Or they may mean (2) that we must try to keep out of his mind the knowledge that he is born into a world of death, violence, wounds, adventure, heroism and cowardice, good and evil. If they mean the first I agree with them: but not if they mean the second. The second would indeed be to give children a false impression and feed them on escapism in the bad sense. There is something ludicrous in the idea of so educating a generation which is born to the...atomic bomb. Since it is so likely that they will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker." 

With all of that being said, you know the young people in your life. If scary stories cause bad dreams and the like, wait until they get to middle school for this one.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

Reviewed on June 16, 2009.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Inkheart (Inkheart Trilogy)

Last Reveille by David Morrell

A change of pace for Morrell

Originally Published in 1977.

David Morrell is one of my favorite authors. The only problem with being a Morrell fan is that he's not a big name author like King, Koontz or Grisham. You have to explain who he is to author book people and they usually get turned off when you mention one of the most famous characters in fiction: Rambo. Too bad because Morrell writes multiple genres - suspense, historical fiction, horror - and he does them well and he is definitely should be known more as the creator of the cartoonish image most people have of Rambo. Anyway, I'm slowly working my way through his older books and enjoying myself.

David Morrell

Last Reveille is Morrell's first foray into historical fiction. First published in 1977, the 1994 edition has an eight page introduction to the book that sets the book up quite well. He notes that it is similar to the John Wayne movie The Shootist in that there is an aging character that becomes a composite, a symbol of America's past (note that the book was nearly done when the movie came out).

The aging character is Miles Calender, a name designed to evoke his age and the distance he has traveled. The young soldier that is learning his ways is Prentice, a named taken from apprentice. They are involved in Blackjack Pershing's expedition into Mexico to try to capture Pancho Villa.

Is it good historical fiction?

Yeah. It seems solid to me. I am a history teacher but I do not claim to be an expert on Pancho Villa, Pershing or the military hardware of the time, but it sounded good.

Is it a good book?

While not Morrell's best, it is a good book, worthy of your time. Kind of like a western with some real nuggets of literature thrown in. There are themes, exploration of the male psyche (father figures, friendship, etc.) and gunfire. What's not to like?

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Last Reveille by David Morrell.

Reviewed on June 19, 2009.