Further to my post, here is a narration my daughter did last November when she was 8. It is not concise, but it will give a sense of her abilities to anyone willing to offer me advice. My son's narration on the same book is a full page longer than hers and has even more detail in the way of names etc.
Julius Caesar by Rachel Firth. Narration for comprehension by my daughter (age 😎. November 1, 2019. Dictated to me. I typed this word for word.
Julius Caesar was born in an important noble and modest family in Rome. He really wanted power. He came across a young woman named Cornelia. She was rich. Then her father died. After that, a general named Sulla got a lot of power. He listed his enemies that he was going to kill on a big paper. Caesar’s uncle was a bitter enemy to Sulla and so was Cornelia’s father. One night Sulla came to Caesar’s house and said to him “Show me that you are loyal to me by divorcing Cornelia.” Caesar said “No way! She’s my wife and I love her!” Sulla said “then you’ll have to be killed,” and the next day he put Caesar on his list. In the middle of the night, Caesar fled from Rome. Then finally he was pardoned, but he still didn’t trust Sulla, not even to be with Cornelia, so he stayed away from Rome.
Then one day, Caesar decided he would go to Rhodes to the most famous speaker in the world, but on the way, pirates captured him. However, he was treating the pirates more like they were the captives. When the pirates were paid, and he was freed, he said to them “I will come back and I will execute the LOT of you!”
Then he went to war in Gaul. Gaul captured! Then he went to Germany. He didn’t even have to fight. From the sight of him, the Germans fled from the town. Then he went to go fight Britain. He did not have so much success there, but he still had glory because he was the first Roman general to set foot on British territory.
Back in Rome, the senators were telling Pompey, a powerful general, that he should not be on Caesar’s side. Pompey finally agreed. They made him consul. Pompey told Caesar to come back across the Rubicon to Rome otherwise he would be considered a traitor. Caesar knew if he came back alone, then he would be executed as soon as he reached the gates, and if he brought his army, then that meant to Pompey that he meant war. Tired and weary from battle, Caesar decided to come back across the Rubicon with his troops. At the sight of Caesar’s army, even though Pompey had more men, he fled to Greece. Caesar was hot on his heels already. Caesar arrived at Alexandria. Meanwhile the king knew of this creature, Julius Caesar. He was scared of Caesar and decided to have Pompey killed, so Caesar walked in, and to his surprise, he found a bucket with Pompey’s ring and head inside. He was sort of sad that they killed Pompey, but life was easier.
Caesar made himself comfortable in the palace in a little apartment. A slave came in and unrolled a rug and out rolled a beautiful woman. It was the queen. She and her brother were rivals. They both wanted to rule by themself. Since she was very pretty, Caesar promised to help her. He arranged a meeting. When her brother came in, he found that she was already there. Then, later, her brother was so scared of Caesar, he jumped into the water and tried to swim to a ferry boat that was departing that afternoon. On the way, he drowned and died. The palace was all to Cleopatra, the queen.
Caesar had very good times with her, but then he left.
One morning, he woke up very early and his wife was pacing the floor. She said “Pleeeease don’t go today. I’ve had a terrible dream that you were stabbed 24 times. Oh, please don’t go.” Caesar said “I’ll be fiiiiine,” and he left. And, to his surprise, he was stabbed 24 times. His last words were “Et tu, Brute,” which means “And you, Brutus?” who was his good friend. Good day.