BakersDozen Posted August 2, 2011 Share Posted August 2, 2011 For those who've used MFW World History and have used the optional literature, would you give me input on any of the books you/your dc read? We really love historical fiction and I'm willing to invest in as many books as my dc will read however when going through MFW Ancient History there were definitely some I wasted $ on and we did not read. Thanks so much! Books on the list are: Augustus Caesar's World Bronze Bow Twice Freed Beric the Brighton Ides of April Beyond the Desert Gate Masada Arabian Nights (CD by Jim Weiss) King Arthur (CD by Jim Weiss) Augustine Comes to Kent 3 Legions (Eagle of the 9th, etc.) Shining Company Adam of the Road Dragon and Raven Canterbury Tales Winning His Spurs (this one is so expensive I hesitate to order if it's not a great book) Three Musketeers (CD by Jim Weiss) By Right of Conquest (also quite expensive) Don Quixote Hitler Red Scarf Girl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbollin Posted August 2, 2011 Share Posted August 2, 2011 Those are the side dishes to have as free reading in the program. So, treat them as such. Some are younger. some are henty books. Since we already had Bronze Bow, Twice Freed, on our shelves from doing the deluxe package in Rome to the Reformation, my dd asked to do those again. Do I guarantee you will? no. Augustus Caesar World is a Genevieve Foster book. It's used in MFW's RTR and was not really one of my favorites to sit around reading for fun. Other people love love love G. Foster books. is the library just not an option to preview some of these? My dd usually likes to read just about anything, so I feel like I'm no help to say "this is a winner". sorry. i shouldn't have posted. -crystal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dhudson Posted August 2, 2011 Share Posted August 2, 2011 Love the Cds from Jim Weiss. Like Crystal, we read many of those in younger years. We love the Eagle of the 9th series. Shining Company was great. I think everyone should read Canterbury Tales but I think you could find a VERY abridged version of Don Quixote and be fine. It was a painfully long read and I won't inflict that on my kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BakersDozen Posted August 2, 2011 Author Share Posted August 2, 2011 is the library just not an option to preview some of these? Our library is painfully lacking so unfortunately I have to buy most books to preview them. :glare: My dd usually likes to read just about anything, so I feel like I'm no help to say "this is a winner". sorry. i shouldn't have posted. Any input is welcome so thank you! My dd is the same - reads anything she can get her hands on. I think you could find a VERY abridged version of Don Quixote and be fine. It was a painfully long read and I won't inflict that on my kids. lol...That was what I was leaning toward with this book. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in CA Posted August 2, 2011 Share Posted August 2, 2011 Augustus Caesar's World Bronze Bow Twice Freed Beric the Brighton Ides of April Beyond the Desert Gate Masada Arabian Nights (CD by Jim Weiss) King Arthur (CD by Jim Weiss) Augustine Comes to Kent 3 Legions (Eagle of the 9th, etc.) Shining Company Adam of the Road Dragon and Raven Canterbury Tales Winning His Spurs (this one is so expensive I hesitate to order if it's not a great book) Three Musketeers (CD by Jim Weiss) By Right of Conquest (also quite expensive) Don Quixote Hitler Red Scarf Girl I've highlighted the books we have read over the years. Of those, our least favorites were Augustus Caesar's World and Eagle of the 9th. Beyond the Desert Gate and Ides of April didn't really thrill us either. They were good, but I don't know....meh. I know that just about everyone who's anyone has loved and recommended Eagle of the 9th but we found it a torturous read. We did finish it, and it was OK, but I would not read it again. In fact my boys were so unimpressed by it that I rented the movie the other day (Eagle) and they barely remembered the storyline. In fact, one boy didn't remember the book! :lol: It's really hard to say what books YOUR children will enjoy though. Every child is so very different. When youngest ds gets to MFW World History next year, I think we will definitely try the King Arthur and Three Musketeer CDs. I don't think I'll assign the above 'least favorites'...there are just too many other classic books out there to read. I will probably assign Masada as well, and a good book on Hitler. The rest will be classics chosen from our SAT prep book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie in MN Posted August 2, 2011 Share Posted August 2, 2011 (edited) Agreeing that it's going to depend on the child. Your post leaves me curious about what you liked & didn't like in your AHL reading - that would be a definite clue about what you'll like on this list. But first I want to make sure you have looked through all of the assigned literature in WHL. There is a lot, and so extras won't be absolutely necessary. This extra list is mostly in the order of "fun extras for the reader." Any books would do for that, including classics as mentioned. But I see your family loves historical fiction, so probably you're in the category of wanting the fun historical extras, but just want to be sure you had seen all that was already in WHL... So, the first group I see is Henty. Henty is a hard read for some of us. Did you like Cat of Bubastes? That's Henty's most approachable book, IMO. Also, Henty books can be viewed online to get a taste for them. Try looking at places like this: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/ And if you do decide to purchase, there are different versions. If you want to save money, look for Dover editions (like MFW sells) or "featherlight" versions. - Beric the Briton - Dragon and Raven - Winning His Spurs (this one is so expensive I hesitate to order if it's not a great book) - By Right of Conquest (also quite expensive) Okay, next I see several Rosemary Sutcliff books listed. I think of Sutcliff as "Henty light." She has similar historical stories, but doesn't spend as much time on descriptions, and she doesn't write such long sentences. But both being British, they have some similarities in their use of the English language and in historical topics. - Shining Company - 3 Legions (Eagle of the 9th, etc.) Next on your list is Mary Ray. My son read one of these and liked it but didn't rave about it (he isn't a big reader, but for some reason far preferred A Single Shard out of the books he read in book club that year - woops, I just figured out that these were last year, 9th grade!). I didn't read Ides, since another mom was doing the previewing/discussion in his book club. I think Bethlehem Books publishes some solid stories that you can trust to give a good message, but maybe you could use the "preview" feature on their website first? - Ides of April - Beyond the Desert Gate We have enjoyed Jim Weiss retellings from the library. I feel my son is ready for the complete stories in high school, though. (And we've enjoyed some of these movies.) The CDs could be a fun extra, or preview - we always like a little audio or video in our day. - Arabian Nights (CD by Jim Weiss) - King Arthur (CD by Jim Weiss) - Three Musketeers (CD by Jim Weiss) As for the next one, have you read a Genevieve Foster book before? For history nuts, they have a ton of interwoven info. And the Caesar one really does tell the story of one guy, start-to-finish, more than some of the others. But it's not really a "story story" if you know what I mean. - Augustus Caesar's World Okay, these we loved. Both are about children in historical settings, and the settings are important ones to enjoy spending more time on. What would it be like to meet Jesus? Paul? Bronze Bow has children of Israel who are rebelling against the Romans with violence, and then they meet Jesus, who has a different way. Twice Freed is by Patricia St. John, whom we love. It's an imagination of what the rest of the story of the Book of Philemon must have been -- why Paul wrote that short letter in the Bible. - Bronze Bow - Twice Freed Some of the Canterbury Tales will be covered already in WHL. I think this edition by Barbara Cohen with illustrations might be nice, since some editions can be a little embarrassing. I don't think there are a lot of tales in this one. Probably depends on whether your family enjoys little "tales." They will probably mean more if you wait until you've studied some background in WHL. - Canterbury Tales I absolutely love Albert Marrin, but Hitler is not my favorite of his books. The beginning about Hitler's youth and early rise to power was interesting to me, so it was worth getting. But I'll just caution that it's really not about the whole war, and it really doesn't have a lot of uplifting elements. I would highly recommend Marrin's book on WWI as probably my favorite (The Yanks Are Coming), with more of a "story" feel -- he tells stories from each branch of the military at the time. And my personal favorite book on WWII is Hansi by Maria Anne Hirschmann (now of Hansi Ministries), but that's neither here nor there :) - Hitler Reading Don Quixote in the original would be a big accomplishment in high school, but I'd have to look into this condensed version. We liked the condensed Iliad, but that was of the type that just cut out sections and didn't rewrite it. I'm sure Marie Hazell researched the version she recommends, but we each have different tastes, too. - Don Quixote These I don't know much about, but I have some of them on my shelf waiting to be read :) - Adam of the Road - Masada - Augustine Comes to Kent - Red Scarf Girl HTH, Julie Edited August 2, 2011 by Julie in MN Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BakersDozen Posted August 2, 2011 Author Share Posted August 2, 2011 Julie - THANK YOU!!!!! Wow...your input is fabulous! That you took the time to type all of that out is wonderful and so helpful! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in CA Posted August 2, 2011 Share Posted August 2, 2011 Julie - THANK YOU!!!!! Wow...your input is fabulous! That you took the time to type all of that out is wonderful and so helpful! :) :iagree::iagree: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie in MN Posted August 9, 2011 Share Posted August 9, 2011 Winning His Spurs (this one is so expensive I hesitate to order if it's not a great book) By Right of Conquest (also quite expensive) Beric the Briton Dragon and Raven I got an email from Library and Ed today and thought of your post about the cost of Henty books. If you don't already belong to LibraryAndEd.com , you might consider taking a look at their prices on Henty. Today's ad said $4.99 each if you got a big set, but I think the individual books are priced pretty reasonably there, too. Julie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hope in God Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 We really liked Winning His Spurs By Henty. My 7 year old son was enamoured and my then 13 year old daughter enjoyed it too. I think it also goes by the name The Boy Knight. If you have any used book stores around you may be able to find it. We live in a town that has a used book store for every block (as well as a coffee shop to complete the effect).:tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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