How to Live Like a Medival Knight

Follow the adventures of Gilbert Marshall in A Medieval Knight (How to Live Like.)as he takes you on a journey with him to become a knight.

We begin with an age appropriate introduction to medieval society. The author provides lots of picture support for what are complicated concepts and manages to explain without over simplifying the ideas. Gilbert talks about his life as a page and what it is like to live in a castle. We follow him as he is knighted and we learn more about the arms and armor of the time. Gilbert then goes on to explain about the purpose of tournaments before going on to discuss war in the Middle Ages.

For a picture book this book provides quite a bit of information for a child on what it would take to become a knight. While most younger children would find this a read aloud book, the book is heavily supported with pictures and labels to help children start to what might be new vocabulary for the time period.

If You Lived When Women Won Their Rights

I had a request from a family member who was looking for titles on Suffragists that were written at an age appropriate level when I came across If You Lived When Women Won Their Rights while researching some other books.

I have been a big fan of this series and had not realized they had published a book on the history of the movement to give women the right to vote. This was actually published in 2006. Most of the titles in this series start with If You Lived, If You Traveled, If You Were, etc. The format for the books is question and answered based. They are a great introduction to just about any historical topic a child might be studying.

This book starts out by discussing the rights woman had in colonial times and during the Revolutionary War. Along with discussing the impact of their lack of rights, it also addresses the responsibilities women had, even though they lacked the rights to control the situations that impacted those responsibilities. The book addresses the issues of marriage laws, access to education, and the challenges of employment for women during the 1800's. From there the book moves to discuss how and why some women got involved in the abolition and prohibition movements during the 1800's. The author explains that from their challenges and restrictions of working in the abolitionist movement, women came together to form a women's movement to have more rights and freedoms.

The author then introduces the reader to the 1848 Seneca Women's Rights Convention. While the Convention did not succeed, immediately in getting women the right to vote, it planted seeds and the author does an age appropriate job of explaining the progress and the challenges women faced on the road to getting the right to vote in 1920.

I thought the author did a particularly good job of sticking to age appropriate explanations as she explained how the women's rights movement was stalled during the Civil War and why women were frustrated that they did not receive equal treatment when male slaves were freed and granted the right to vote. These can be sensitive subjects and I was impressed with how the author approached the topic for children. It got a little harsher as she described the treatment of the women during the 1900's, but I am not sure there is an age appropriate way to discuss the treatment the women received when they were marching and assembling.

As with all books, I always suggest screening before using. As I mentioned, I picked this up for a family member who is looking for age appropriate materials for her daughter on the topic. I think it is one of the better books I have found on the topic.

The Dreadful, Smelly, Colonies

I came across the Fact Finders Disgusting History series and decided to preview The Dreadful, Smelly Colonies: The Disgusting Details About Life in Colonial America (Disgusting History)prior to purchasing it. It sounded like it would be similar to the You Wouldn't Want series in providing an entertaining but informative look at American history for children. However, I have bought on impulse and been disappointed with the outcomes. This would have been a good impulse purchase.

Unlike the You Wouldn't Want series, this book uses more realistic drawings and photographs to illustrate the topic. While the title is designed to be shocking, the information is accurate and factual. The first section of the book discusses the shelters that were built when settlers arrived in the various areas of the country and why those shelters were chosen. The author discusses topics like disease, insects in your food, and the building of privies for bathrooms.

The book also addresses indentured servants and the fact that slaves originally could purchase their freedom until laws were changed that took away that possibility. This is an area not often discussed in history texts for children, which made it an interesting choice to add to my purchases for Christmas.

Challenges with diseases, travel, and the relationship with Native populations are not ignored in this book. For a short book that could pass as a picture book from the outside, it covers a good deal of historical information in an appealing format for children. While I passed on it when purchasing some other books, I will be adding this to my list of Colonial History books to pick up for Christmas.