G. Foster books as spine?

[SEGway]

Has anyone used 1492, William Penn's World, and The Year of the Horseless Carriage by Genevieve Foster as a spine for early modern history. I have a rising 3rd grader.

 

Thoughts? BTDT?

[SilverMoon]

The Foster books are some of my favorite history spines, but they may be a stretch for a third grader. The reading level is higher than Story of the World (SOTW). If her reading and listening skills are pretty strong, and you explain things, she'd probably do fine. The downside is you wouldn't be able to combine younger siblings as well.

[SEGway]

Thanks, SilverMoon. I was wondering about that. I remember reading somewhere (I wish I could remember where) that those three titles (1492, William Penn's World, and The Year of the Horseless Carriage) were written to a slightly younger audience than some of the others (World of Columbus and Sons, George Washington's World). I have Columbus, Washington, and Lincoln. I'm pretty sure those would be more than I'm prepared to spoonfeed her at this time.

 

Does anyone have a review of these three specific titles? My rising 3rd grader is a very strong reader/listener. She reads voraciously on her own, but not very deeply. She likes things like Narnia, Trixie Belden, Edward Eager, Oz, etc. Oh, and fairy tales. Lots of those. She also likes to reread. As far as comprehending new information that's more than basic narrative/plot, she does much better listening to a read-aloud and narrating than she would if I handed simply her a slice of non-fiction. We've been doing SOTW for ancients and middle ages, and I have books 3 and 4. But, I'm not feeling the love. It skips around enough that she doesn't really get into any one story before we're talking about something else. I give her books that complement it, like D. Stanley biographies, Who was...?, Robin Hood, and Sinbad, but without those, the names get all muddled and she vaguely remembers some of the action sequences. Which sounds pretty typical for a 7yo, but I think she'd enjoy a spine that's more connected than SOTW, and it might...maybe....be more enjoyable for me as the reader-alouder, too.

 

I have been gifted tons of picture books dealing with this time period, so the rising 1st grader shouldn't miss much as far as flavor of the era. She's also a really good listener, even if she has no idea what's being read. And, she gets more than I expect her to. So the not being able to combine should be all right. Because we'll do some picture books for her regardless.

 

Any thoughts on those three specifically? (1492, William Penn's World, and The Year of the Horseless Carriage)