History, just for fun

At the beginning of the school year, I picked up a copy of The Wicked History of the World at my friend Brittney's house. And the subtitle was even more intriguing -- history with the nasty bits left in.

I like history anyway, but who can resist a title like that!?! I picked up a copy for us the next time we were at the bookstore. We absolutely love it! The text is written in a fun manner, and the cartoons are sometimes laugh-out-loud funny.

Even more recently, I realized that The Wicked History of the World is something of an overview of the author's Horrible Histories series. Being the bookaholic that I am, I had to see what those were about.

I ordered the two that were available in my library system. The first one that came was The Measly Middle Ages. We were actually on our way out to dinner when we got it. I read a few bits in the car, and we all liked it so much that we took turns reading during dinner!

These books aren't "the last word" in history, but they're FUN. They give you enough information to get you interested, but not enough to get bogged down like most do. History can be so dry and dull, and I think most children get turned off of history simply because of the presentation. I know that I never liked it until my freshman year of college, when my Western Civilization professor completely disregarded the "usual" way of teaching. She threw the lecture-only, memorizing-names-and-dates format out the window and let us discuss, compare and contrast, and experience -- as much as possible -- past times.

So far, all of these books are ones that Spyder will choose to read during his before-bed reading time. Just last night, he read part of The Wicked History of the World to Sass. History books that a very active 8-year-old boy chooses to read? YEP! They get my seal of approval on that alone!