These are the history books I plan to use this year. We’re covering (mostly) Britain, from the exit of the Romans to Henry VII.
Nonfiction:
Our Island Story: A History of Britain for Boys and Girls, from the Romans to Queen Victoria. This is our history spine. Faith is All About Anglophilia, so we’ll be spending the majority of our time on British history. This should segue nicely into American history.
The Medieval World. The illustrations in this one are really nice. Tends to two-page spreads on a given topic, like ‘Hunting and Hawking’ and ‘Knightly Orders’.
Archers, Alchemists, and 98 Other Medieval Jobs You Might Have Loved or Loathed. This has short sections on various medieval vocations, each around 200 words, with clever cartoony pictures.
Fiction:
The Dark Is Rising Sequence: Over Sea, Under Stone; The Dark is Rising; Greenwitch; The Grey King; Silver on the Tree. I’m so excited about these. They are my favorite books from childhood, especially The Dark is Rising. Arthurian extrapolation, modern day.
Time Cat (Puffin Modern Classics) You can’t go wrong with Lloyd Alexander. This one dances through history with a boy and his talking cat.
Tales of King Arthur (Usborne Classics Retold). Modern-language Arthurian legend. The best I’ve found, very chaste but not babyish or stilted.
Catherine, Called Birdy. A delightful book. First person, diary of a 14 year old girl of minor nobility in the 13th century.
Son of Charlemagne. One of our ventures to the Continent.
Beorn the Proud . Vikings! Grr!
Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village. This one is unique – it’s a series of monologues intended to be read aloud or performed. Everyone in it is a child or teen in a medieval English village. It’s really good!
Usborne Time Traveler. The Viking and Medieval sections will be used this year. I read this in fifth grade under a different title and was so happy when I redicovered it.
Castle Diary: The Journal of Tobias Burgess, Page. Be sure you get the large-format hardcover for this one. The illustrations are such a huge part of the book and they don’t translate well to small and no color.
Castle. A classic. The illustrations are most often mentioned but the story behind them is great too.
I also have religion, math, and science. Another post!
where do i enroll?
@Amy Heh. Megan the librarian (and Mrs. Stegmann) led me to a substantial portion of these books, lo those many years ago.
Nice list! We have a few from it on our list for next year. Looking forward to the other posts!