All posts by Katherine

Stone Age Boy

Books and Magazines, Children's books, Children's fiction, Featured, History Books, , , ,

***HIGHLY RECOMMENDED***

Stone Age Boy

This historical fiction picture book is a great introduction to archaeology and stone age people for younger children – for us it is the one essential book on the subject.

When a boy falls down a hole he finds himself back in the stone age. His new friend introduces him to stone age life.

This is a great children’s picture book – well written and beautifully illustrated and unusual in bringing historical fiction to younger children. Stone Age Boy is a great introduction to a very different way of life, showing how stone age people made tools, hunted, and cooked. A particularly nice touch is the beautiful pictures of stone age animals on the inside covers.

Whilst the simple text and story make it suitable for reading to younger children the detail in the central spread make for an useful introduction and discussion point for older children.

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Stone Age Boy

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Zoo-ology

Books and Magazines, Children's books, Nature Books, ,

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This book is all about the illustrations! Zoo-ology, by Joelle Jolivet is a great first animal encyclopedia.

This wonderfully over-sized book at nearly 45cm high, is big, bold, beautiful and packed with animals. Each double spread has a theme – cold, horned, in the sea and so on. It is the kind of book that a child will spend hours examining, again and again. I particular love the way the animals are not limited to the more familiar – whilst these are represented so are green-eyed tree frogs and tarsiers!

We also enjoy looking through the pages for the chameleon hidden on each one.

My Name is Mina

Children's fiction, Home education

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My Name is Mina, by David Almond, is a wonderful, poetic story depicting home education. My Name is Mina is a rare book -beautifully written using language in an almost hypnotic way, quirky and with an instinctive understanding of unschooling/autonomous/informal education. Written as Mina’s diary, it reflects the main character’s creativity and curiosity. Mina loves words – the sound of them, their flow and patterns, reflected in the wonderful use of words, fonts and space throughout the book. She has a uncompromising sense of wonder at the world around her – from the blackbird chicks in her tree, to the sheer immensity of the universe. As a result Mina does not fit in at school. She is unwilling or unable to lose herself and her world of words and ideas in order to meet the requirements of school or fit in with the other children. So her mother takes her out of school to be home educated. The diary tells of her experiences leading up to leaving school, her coming to terms with the loss of her father and dealing with having been a square peg in a round hole, until eventually she comes to a place where she can reconnect with the world again. The descriptions of the quiet moments of contemplation and the time spent round the kitchen table making and talking with her Mum are something that strike a chord with my family.

Picture books

Children's books

30th Nov: Yummy nummy mummy

As a family that breastfeeds many picture books aimed at young children and babies are frustratingly quiet on the subject. When ever a baby needs feeding most books resort to the bottle with no reason at all. So we really enjoy finding books that include or are about breastfeeding. When my eldest was little she really liked Breastmilk Makes My Tummy Yummy, by Cecilia Moen. Simple text and pictures focused on the breastfeeding baby and child. More breastfeeding children’s books

29th Nov: Read and Wonder

Our next choice is a whole series, and an interesting illustration of the advantages of a picture book format over others. The fabulous Read and Wonder books look at a range of subjects in a wonderful way – great illustrations, humour and text combine in a series of gems, whatever your child is interested in. We particularly love What is a wall after all, but it is hard to pick a favourite! Some of the titles overlap with our other favourite the Nature Storybooks series.

Unfortunately this is an old format, replaced by a smaller number of the much less successful format of the Read and Discover series. In a bid to make more interesting early readers Walker Books have lost the soul of these books. The tiny size of the illustrations and the way they disappear into the crease of the spine, make them feel cramped on the page. The text in the ones I have seen no longer flow through the book with the illustrations, but is separated. They are no longer joyful, expansive books to share, but small cramped ones who do neither the words of pictures justice.

28th Nov: Our Christmas favourite

With Christmas fast approaching we have been thinking about our favourite Christmas books. One of these is The Christmas Bear, by Henrietta and Paul Stickland. Little Bear falls into the magical world of Santa’s workshop. It is joyful books, richly illustrated and full of lots of detail. This wonderful world of toys and wrapping and all the jobs and tools for the elves to make and test the toys is mesmerising. There is so much to look at! and we love spotting Father Christmas’ naughty pet penguin. Another favourite is The Sea Mice and the Stars, by Kenneth Steven and Louise Ho. Ashenteen is a sea mouse, and she and her family collect fallen stars each winter to light the other mice’s homes and guide them home through storm and snow. A lovely adventure story, with a happy ending. A really magical Christmas book.

27th Nov: A early favourite

One of my daughter’s early favourite board books was My First Words, illustrated by Kate Merritt. She loved the bold, colourful pictures on themed pages. The words are really clear and she loved pointing to them and saying the animal, or part of the body or clothes.

26th Nov: Katie Morag

One of our favourite picture book characters is Katie Morag. This little person’s big personality shines out of this series of books by Dr Mairi Hedderwick. There are a number of these that we borrow from the library again and again. Hedderwick’s soft watercolours provide an evocative feeling of living on a small Scottish island. Both my children have been breastfed and it is wonderful to see that depicted as part of everyday life in the books where Katie has a baby sister, in particular Katie Morag and the Tiresome Ted.

25th Nov: Urbble Gloop

A few years ago we visited Heligan Gardens in Cornwall and bought this lovely book. The Mud Maid: A Story of Heligan, by Sandra Horn (Author) and Karen Popham (Illustrator) It  is a wonderful bitter sweet fantasy story, with a happy ending, all about the passage of time in the abandoned gardens and their return to glory from the point of view of the mud maid – a pond spirit who lives in the gardens. It covers time, abandonment, loneliness, war, hope and renewal.

24th Nov: Mia’s story

Mia’s story, by Michael Foreman is a poignant story about how a little girl living with her family on a rubbish tip in Chile, finds hope and beauty after the loss of her dog. The soft watercolours provide a gentle background and beautifully illustrate the change from the cold, desolate rubbish tip to a beautiful field of flowers, providing financial hope to the family. One of the things we love about this book is the different cultural setting and the way that, although integral to the story, it is secondary to Mia’s story, rather than the focus.

23rd Nov: Lift the flap …

Another series that we have several of and return to again and again is Usborne‘s Lift the Flap books. We have Dragons, Bugs and slugs and Dinosaurs. These are very approachable very early factual books  (not sure this is strictly true of the Dragons one!), with lots of interaction. The colours are bright and bold and the text really uses the page and the flaps to work altogether, unlike many factual books which end up stilted and a little boring. In fact we find it much harder to find factual books that match our expectations of illustration and readability. These ones certainly do that.

22 Nov: Another Aussie gem

Another Australian picture book today, Uno’s Garden by Graeme Base. This is a book on the balance of nature,  on ecology and maths. It is the story of how one man, Uno, came to live in the rich, lush forest full of animals and plants. But as more people join him the they have a terrible impact on the animals and plants. But not all is lost and a more balanced approach provides hope, and the animals and plants return. The stunning, rich illustrations are filled with details and the words have a lovely rhythm to them. It is search and count book, filled with imaginatively named animals such as the snortlepig and the lumpybums. But it also tackles more advanced number patterns in the form of square numbers and doubling numbers.

21 Nov: Lauren Child

Another of our favourite illustrators and authors today - Lauren Child. Best-known for Charlie and Lola, her illustrations use patterns in an often surprising way. Lola is a character my girls both love. And they enjoy many of the books and the TV series. But our current favourite is something a little different - Who wants to be a Poodle? I Don’t! All about a pampered pooch who longs to reconnect with what it should mean to be a poodle. The wonderful use of patterns against other patterns, and patterns of text make for a visually treat, and a more sophisticated picture book than Charlie and Lola, which are aimed at younger readers.

20th Nov: A right royal mess …

Humorous,slightly risqué picture books can delight child and adult alike. We have two favourites about knickers and pants. Pants in the UK sense of the word – meaning underwear rather than the decidedly less humorous trousers/pants! The first is The Queen’s Knickers, by Nicholas Allen. The story of the Queen’s many knickers – one for every occasion, how they go missing and which will she wear for a school visit. We have borrowed this one from the library repeatedly. A nice gentle, humorous book. Pants, by Giles Andreae and Nick Sharratt on the other hand is a big, bold, shouty book! Bright and colourful, skipping through lots of different kinds of pants.

19th Nov: Big, bold and beautiful animals …

Today’s book is all about the illustrations! Zoo-ology, by Joelle Jolivetis a wonderfully over-sized book, with lots of illustrations of animals. It is big, bold and beautiful. Each double spread has a theme – cold, horned, in the sea and so on. It is the kind of book that a child will spend hours examining, again and again. I particular love the way the animals are not limited to the more familiar – whilst these are represented so are green-eyed tree frogs and tarsiers! It really feels like a great first animal encyclopedia. We also enjoy looking through the pages for the chameleon hidden on each one.

18th Nov: Wonderwise

As home educators we are always on the look out for factual books that entertain and interest. A friend introduced us to a great series – Wonderwise. Yum-Yum: a look at food chains, by Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom is unusually good as a first book on food chains. It reads very well as a story, without any extra information disturbing the flow. It isn’t too simplistic in its view of food chains. It includes what happens when an animal dies, the fact that plants use nutrients from decomposed animals as food, and illustrates that there may be different consumers of that same plant (in this case). Our favourites also include The World is full of babies and When I was young.

17th Nov: My Two Grannies

Whilst working on this post for Picture Book Month we have been reminded of some picture books that we haven’t borrowed from the library for a while – but have really loved and at one time borrowed again and again. One of these is My Two Granniesby Floella Benjamin, ullustrated by Margaret Chamberlain. Alvina’s two grannies are very different – one is from Trinidad, the other from the north of England. A lovely story about how they learn to share their time with their grand daughter, and become good friends whilst her parents are away.

16th Nov: Another favourite author …

Another favourite author/illustrator today. Bob Graham. We really like his whimsical, gentle books. They manage to mix the very down to earth with the positively magical in a unique way. One of our favourites is Oscar’s Half Birthday. Set in an inner city, baby Oscar and his family celebrate his first six months of life with a trip to the park for a picnic. A very simple, uplifting story, but with lots of characterisation and it is great to see books showing urban life, younger parents and mixed race families with out it being the focus of a moral or issue to be tackled, just in an everyday but joyful way. Another favourite is Jethro Byrd, Fairy Child. Again Bob Graham mixes the magical – fairies – with the mundane. In this case a back yard and travelling in an old van (the fairies that is).

 

More favourite picture books for November …

*****************************************************

November is Picture Book Month. To celebrate I’ll add some more of our favourite picture books each day through out November. In a picture book, the illustrations are integral, providing not only a visual experience but telling the story too. They can provide not only a wonderful introduction to reading, but also an appreciation of poetry and art. As the saying goes a picture is worth a thousand words. Find out more about Picture Book Month and read the daily featured posts from Picture Book Champions. Please leave a comment telling us about your favourite picture books…

Halloween

Local community events,

As a child in Hertfordshire in the 1970s/80s we didn’t have Halloween. We celebrated Harvest festival at school and the village church – which involved donating tins of food. And then we had fireworks and a bonfire for bonfire night / Guy Fawkes.

But now a days Halloween seems to have taken a hold in England, having been introduced from America. Since having children it has become an important part of our year. It is possibly the children’s favourite day of the year, and definitely thought about far longer in advance than Christmas – combining dressing up, receiving sweets and meeting lots of neighbours, and at least one party.

Over the years I have learnt a little about the origins of the festival mostly in response to being asked about the argument from some Christians that it is wrong, and amounts to worshipping the devil. These arguments have little meaning for me – being an atheist. But from an intellectual point of view I find the theological and cultural tangle fascinating.

To have survived to the modern day with such importance in some parts of the Christian world – Scotland and Ireland there must be a Christian purpose to the festival. These countries have been Christian in some form or other since the fall of the Roman Empire! Halloween – is of course All Hallows Eve – the day eve of All Saints Day. When it was believed by many Christians that the souls of the dead where able to walk with the living. Halloween traditions stem from the perceived need to confuse these souls and protect people from malign forces through the disguises and light – in the form of bonfires and lanterns. The argument against Halloween seems far more of a puritanical denouncement of other denominations.

But recently Halloween has become more of a personal celebration. I recently watched the episode of Quantum Leap where Sam Beckett leaps into a novelist preparing the Presbyterian haunted house for Halloween. Presbyterian caught my attention. My gran is from a traditionally Presbyterian family from rural Northern Ireland and it got us talking. She shared her memories of just how important Halloween was – partly a post harvest celebration, partly charitable. Groups of men would come trick or treating, collecting money for charity. This is apparently re-invented in North America in the 1950s by a Presbyterian as Trick or Treat for UNICEF.

I had thought it was predominantly Catholic in origin. But no – Halloween in Northern Ireland was one of those rare things – celebrated by Protestant and Catholic alike. A festival enjoyed by all amidst the more sectarian Catholic feast of All Saints (although All Saints is celebrated with a different meaning by Presbyterians too). and the Protestant Reformation Sunday. And unlike the in hind sight rather distasteful English Guy Fawkes day it isn’t a festival originating in the discrimination against and violent reactions of a religious minority.

Now Halloween joins Easter and Christmas as celebrations that have their roots in the Christian culture of my ancestors, a link to my cultural heritage. Which can for me as an atheist provide a way of celebrating life, and an opportunity to make contact with neighbours, friends and family. Maybe next year we will reinstate collecting for charity in our house.

Halloween and other festivals of death and life – Google Books Result – more about Presbyterian Northern Irish Halloween celebrations.

Should Catholics Celebrate Halloween? - Halloween as a Catholic festival

Picture books – more

Children's books, Uncategorized, , ,

15th Nov: A classic favourite…

Today’s favourite is a real classic. An action song in a picture book - We’re All Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury. The poetic use of repetition and rhyme make this a great read aloud and pull the child along on the bear hunt. It is full of sounds and movement. The sense of adventure in this book is palpable and lends itself naturally to being turned into a game. It is one of those books where the story comes off the page and follows you and your children into the real world.

14th Nov: A favourite illustrator …

I haven’t been using the Picture book Month theme calendar for my posts because so many of our favourite books just don’t fit into the categories and I wanted to talk about individual authors, illustrators and series of books. But today my chosen illustrator happens to have created a wonderful book on today’s theme – dragons. Not only that but I have just discovered that she illustrated the covers of some of my favourite adult fiction books written by Robin Hobb, which feature … dragons.

Jackie Morris‘s illustrations are beautiful – each page is a masterpiece in its self. She combines intricate detail and fantastical, exotic colours and places, with almost whimsical people and powerful animals. Tell Me A Dragon shows that everyone has a dragon – what ever its size or speciality. What is yours? Another of our favourite Jackie Morris books is Can You See a Little Bear?

13th Nov: And something for the little ones …

Looking back to when my two girls were babies their favourite first picture books these were simple, boldly illustrated books with minimal words, and either something to do (feeling the textures or lifting flaps) and/or strong characters.

That’s not my teddy, Hug, and Spot Bakes A Cake.

12th Nov: Something a bit more grown-up …

My eight year old daughter is currently very taken with a couple of Babette Cole‘s picture books. Funny, child-friendly illustrations introducing puberty (Hair In Funny Places) and the strange world of grown-ups (Mummy never told me) in a relaxed way tongue – cheek way. Now we certainly need to track down another of her books – Mummy Laid an Egg. These are great examples of how picture books, traditionally aimed at very young children can be appropriate for older children – how funny illustrations and good rhythm and rhyme continue to appeal as children get older.

11th Nov: More historical fiction

History is a favourite subject in our house. So here are a couple of very different historical fiction pictures books. The first is a princess story with a difference – a real life princess and the real pressures of being royalty. Moi and Marie Antoinette (by Lynn Cullen and Amy Young) follows Marie Antoinette from her idyllic childhood in Austria to the pressures of the French court, through the eyes of her lap dog. The dog acts as a proxy – this is all about how French court life separates him and his mistress, but has a happy ending as he finds a loving mistress in her daughter Theresa. No French Revolution here. Another of our favourites covering a very different time and place is Freedom Ship, by Doreen Rappaport and Curtis James. Based on a true story of a group of slaves, including women and children who escaped with a Confederate ship, joining the Union fleet and gaining their freedom. An exciting adventure of a boy and his family, filled with the professionalism of the slave sailors and the fear and suspense of this very daring escape.

10th Nov: Counting books

As so many picture books are aimed at babies and young children a lot of them feature numbers and learning to count. A classic is The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle. With his signature colour and texture dense illustrations it tells the story of a caterpillar eating lots of things – with the extra fun of holes in the page where he has eaten through the food. Unlike many picture books devoted to counting the story line stands on it own. Another counting book with more to it than just counting is We all went on Safari. A bright, journey through the grasslands of Tanzania with a band of Maasai children, counting the different animals as we go – in both English and Swahili.

9th Nov: Once in a life-time Great Aussie Do!

Our favourite picture books from Australia are both published by Scholastic. And Kangaroo played his Didgeridoo, byNigel Gray and Glen Singleton. “You should have come to the Great Aussie Do” – lots of Australian animals come together for a party in a book with a wonderful song like rhythm to the lyrics and friendly humorous illustrations, introducing an assortment of Australian wildlife. Another very different favourite is an version of Waltzing Matilda, lyrics written by Banjo Patterson and illustrated by Freya Blackwood. The beautiful, evocative pictures tell the story of the shearers strikes that the song is said to have been written in honour of. It comes with a CD of the song, sung to the little known, original tune.  (Both are hard to get hold of in the UK).

8th Nov: Our favourite animal books

My youngest daughter and I are animal mad, so we find ourselves drawn to beautiful picture books about animals. Not the anthropomorphic kind, but the books showing animals as they really are. These as it turns out are a very rare beast indeed. Many of the factual books about animals aren’t picture books, or are dry with random text that fails to flow through the book, often accompanied by not very inspiring photographs. But one of our favourite publishers Walker Books do a fantastic series called Nature Storybooks.

Each is a great example of a picture book, written to flow like fiction with beautiful illustrations. And each is different – different authors, and illustrators make for a varied look and read. We already have five, and regularly borrow two others from the library. Every single one is a gem.

7th Nov: Babywearing books

I have carried both my daughters and we love to see pictures of children being worn. Here are a couple of the rare books specifically about babywearing. Thought there are others which show it in passing. Our favourite is the classic A Ride on Mother’s Back, by Emery & Durga Bernhard. With rich, friendly, fascinating pictures of babywearing all around the world, it is a great introduction to how different traditional cultures carry their babies. Another one, set in Africa is Goodnight, Kuu Kuu by Wamoro P. Njenga and Anne Sibley O’Brien. It follows a baby through his day from the vantage point of his mother’s back. Evocative and very sweet natured. Do you know of any babywearing books? We are always on the look out for more. More babywearing books …

6th Nov: Food glorious food …

Many picture books have a moral to the story or are written to teach children a lesson about behaviour. As a parent these can make us feel uncomfortable or positive about the book depending on our own parenting style.  Some of our favourite picture books turn food discipline on its head. One of these is the Daisy book Eat Your Peas by Kes Gray and Nick Sharratt and the other is Don’t Dip Your Chips in Your Drink, Kate by Caryl Hart, Leigh Hodgkinson. Both deal with how children eat with humour, and have something for the parents reading them to take away and think about.

5th Nov: Princess stories

Having two little girls in the house it is hard to avoid the influence of helpless, ball-gowned princesses. But one day in the library we discovered Mary Hoffman‘s Princess Grace. This is a really nice book exploring a young girl’s developing interest in princess, as she discovers that there have been far more interesting storytale and real-life princesses than the ones that require rescuing by fairy tale princes and who wear pink floaty dresses. The illustrations by Cornelius van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu are rich and full of facial expression. On the subject of princesses – we really like John-Steptoe’s Mufaro’s beautiful daughters, a traditional African twist on the old fairy tale princess.

4th Nov: You Choose

My girls love You Choose. Over the years we have spent hours playing imaginative games with this book. It is highly interactive, with page after page of pictures to choose from. The pictures are bold and cartoon like in Nick Sharratt’s trademark style. He is another illustrator whose picture books feature in my children’s favourites. Who do you want to be your friend? Which clothes, house or food would you choose? Warning – parents may get fed up of this one long before the children!

3rd Nov: Stone Age Boy

Picture books of course aren’t just for babies, and can have great educational value. Though we have found surprisingly few historical fiction picture books. One of our most borrowed books from the library is just that –Stone Age Boy, by Satoshi Kitamura. When a boy falls down a hole he finds himself back in the stone age. His new friend introduces him to stone age life. This is well written and beautifully illustrated, with glorious clear colours and lot of detail. Stone Age Boy is a great introduction to a very different way of life, showing how stone age people made tools, hunted, and cooked. A particularly nice touch is the pictures of stone age animals on the inside covers.

Please leave a comment if you would like to share your favourite historical fiction picture books. We are always on the look out for more.

2nd Nov: Bear Books

Both my girls have loved the Bear books, by Stella Blackstone and Debbie Harter from Barefoot Books. They are simple but joyful, with bold illustrations full of colour and patterns. A single book grasps their attention so that they not only want to be read the book, but will spend hours looking at the pictures and playing with the Bear. In the back of our favourite Bear at Home there is a plan of Bear’s house and my daughters have spent hours walking their fingers around the house, and imagining themselves living in the house. Highly recommended as a first book for a baby, especially in its board book format.

1st Nov: Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler

cover - Monkey PuzzleSo to kick off I thought I would share one of our favourite writer/illustrator partnerships - Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. Amongst these are some of my daughters’ all time favourites. My youngest daughter’s first favourite book wasMonkey Puzzle – she always waited with bated breath for the little monkey to be returned to its Mum. Another of our favourite characters – the Gruffalo has taken on a life of his own with merchandising, a stage show and an animated film. Room on the broom is also a much loved classic in our house, but actually you can’t go far wrong with any of these picture books.

The illustrations are bright, humorous and friendly and the words bounce along through the pages, with a song-like rhythm. Indeed many have been put to music in songbooks.
Which are your favourite Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler picture books?

*******************************************************

November is Picture Book Month. To celebrate I’ll add some more of our favourite picture books each day through out November.
In a picture book, the illustrations are integral, providing not only a visual experience but telling the story too. They can provide not only a wonderful introduction to reading, but also an appreciation of poetry and art. As the saying goes a picture is worth a thousand words.

Find out more about Picture Book Month and read the daily featured posts from Picture Book Champions.

Please leave a comment telling us about your favourite picture books…

More favourite picture books for November …

Babywearing blogs

Babywearing, ,

To celebrate International Babywearing Week – here are some blogs on babywearing.

Why I Love Baby Wearing - Charlotte Kaufman

I Love The Way You Wear Your Baby | International Babywearing Week 2011 - Charlotte Kaufman

Why I love babywearing – Katherine Norman

Benefits of Babywearing – Katherine Norman

Types of baby carrier – Katherine Norman

Baby-Wearing ~ Toddler-Wearing ~ Eleven-Year-Old-Wearing - Rachel Coleman (spotted by Charlotte Kaufman). An inspirational account of babywearing a disabled child. Shows the potential for babywearing for all of us and as a result I have been inspired to make sure I take a mei-tai out with me today for my only 4 year old!

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Home ed magazines

Books and Magazines, Home education, ,

Here is a list of home education magazines.

EOS – new UK home education magazine.

Home Education Magazine Long running US magazine.

Life Learning Magazine Self-directed, life-based learning.

Back-to-Homeschool Magazine – magazine by girls for girls.

Secular Homeschooling Magazine – another US one, non-religious bimonthly magazine.

Growing Without Schooling – Archives issue (Aug 1977 –  Oct 2001) of the magazine founded by John Holt, one of the founders of the modern unschooling movement.

Also a mention for Green Parent – a mainstream(ish) parenting magazine that often includes alternative education, including home education.

Are their any others that you would recommend?

New books

Children's books

We have just received the last of the books I ordered the other week.

We have started to have £5 pounds a month each for me and the girls to spend on educational things – mostly books. After saving up a bit in the kitty we each chose two books to buy (mostly second-hand) and E got an extra with a birthday Amazon voucher.

Some of these books are from our favourite series – Wonderwise, Nature Storybooks and Read and Wonder. E chose two Wonderwise books, T a Nature Storybook and a Read and Wonder, and I chose two books on the Stone Age. Adventures in the Ice Age is from a series we have just discovered in the library and are enjoying.

After years of trying not to buy too many books I am now relaxing a bit. Children’s books have become the focus of my interests  – home educating, reading for fun, blogging, twitter, Amazon listmania etc. I’ve taken up reading publishers catalogues and making reading lists!

 

History Resources: Books

Children's books, Children's fiction, History, ,

I have always been fascinated by history. My eight year old is following in my footsteps. She is endlessly fascinated by people, their relationships and lives – in other words, their stories. For her history is a treasure box of people all in very different circumstances and the stories of their lives.

We use a lot of books to study history – many borrowed from friends or the library. But even so we have an ever growing collection of children’s history books. As with all educational resources we have found it vital to match the book, or programme or what ever to the child. So whilst another child might enjoy books with pictures of things or facts for my daughter it is all about people’s lives. The best history for her is presented as a form of storytelling. So we are always on the look out for history that is well written, with a good flow to the words and focused on people.

We use a mix of childrens resources and adult books which I use to expand my own knowledge to introduce ideas into conversations.

Books

World history:

Story of the world

A set of four books exploring world history through a narrative. These are part of the highly structured Classical Education system The Well-trained Mind. The system is far too adult-directed, and structured for us, but many home educators use the story books, as just that – story books. It is comprehensive, possibly a little overwhelming so for my daughter, who has never clicked with any but the first chapter. It has good international coverage, though the balance is rather skewed towards Judeo-Christian traditions for my tastes.

A Little History of the World

A beautiful narrative. This book focuses more on history of western world. More concise than Story of the World. If you only read one world history book this should probably be it. Suited to the older child or for adults as a basic history book.

English history:

My daughter is fascinated by Kings and Queens and their lives. So initially we focused on English history and the monarchy. Her absolute favourite book is Tony Robinson’s Kings and Queens. It is funny, and full of personal details that bring historical characters to life for her.

Factual books:

My daughter initially found most of the factual historical books too dry. I think that more will become interesting for her as she gets older. But a couple of series do stand out.

She really enjoys the Horrible Histories books. As an adult they seem a little too focused on the nasty side of life, but they provide a great introduction to everyday life in different historical periods.

One of our favourite publishers Book House produces the Danger Zone series – beautifully illustrated, highly entertaining and with books for many different periods (60 books all together!).

We have searched long and hard for good general

Historical fiction:

My daughter’s favourite genre is historical fiction. There are some great children’s historical fiction books out there ranging from picture books to teen books. (I recently read the stone age series Chronicles of Ancient Darkness for my own entertainment.) Here are a few of our favourites:

There are a number of series we like:

  • Tales of the dead – Whilst predominantly visually stunning factual books these include include a graphic story through the pages
  • Historical Stories – Historical fiction for younger readers
  • Sparks – A large series of historical fiction for younger readers
  • Terry Deary – Author of Horrible Histories has written historical fiction but we find these rather flat. We much prefer the sparks and historical stories.
  • Viking Vik – a series for younger readers about a viking boy

Historical biographies:

Historical biographies aimed at younger children read very much like fiction.

Usbourne readers have some good titles in their Famous Lives series, our favourite being Marie Antoinette.

I also find that I am reading more historical biographies – on the look out for interesting people that my daughter might be interested in.

This is just a quick round-up of some of the books we enjoy. Some we own – others are borrowed from the library – some of them time after time. There are many more to be added to the list. And many more other resources we use for history including TV programmes, music and museums.

Posted as a contribution to Liveotherwise’s HE resources carnival
What history books do you recommend?