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If my son likes the biography of Lafayette by Russell Freedman...


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What else will he like?  

 

I know that sounds crazy, but he's REALLY into this!  He also really liked Freedman's biography of Crazy Horse.  It's just, I think I might be out of good biographies by Freedman.  Any suggestions?  I don't know if there are other books about Lafayette he would like or other authors or...  We're using audiobooks, btw, so they're only useful to me if they're available on audio.  (He's dyslexic.)

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Russell Freedman is an excellent story teller.  I think that you might do well with any of his books.

 

My ds is a history lover as well.  He reads biographies for fun.  He is now 15, so I'm trying to remember what he read at your son's age.

 

I do remember that he read the Cornerstones of Freedom books over and over.

 

Once my brain wakes up, I might be able to remember more...

Edited by Junie
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Ok, I found:

 

The Great Fire by Jim Murphy

In the Heart of the Sea Young Reader's Edition by Philbrick

Black Ships Before Troy by Sutcliff

and the YWAM biographies by the Benges.

 

Albert Marrin has nothing on audible, but that was a great suggestion!  Freedman has lots of great stuff, but some are not really age-appropriate.  He's better with more funny or inspiring.  Some of the topics are child labor, slavery, really heady stuff for a 7 yo.  He's been listening to Moby Dick, so I think the Philbrick version attempting to tell the real story will be interesting..

 

Good question on the Jean Fritz books.  They're short and I think I got him some during a sale or something.  I have credits that I needed to use down.  It's weird, but really a LOT of what we buy goes on sale dirt cheap with audible.  The YWAM biographies at down my credits, so now I'm ok.  I don't know if they poof or what, but I was getting warnings.

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Go to arbookfinder.com and type in Russell Freedman. You'll get 34 hits for his books that list IL - interest level, and BL - book level. Both the books you mention are MG - middle grade level and there are 31 books for that level by that author. Audible has several of these.

 

My son whose bachelors is in history is a big Freedman fan. He says he's a solid historian and great writer. 

 

FWIW, I wouldn't give Marrin to a 7yo. He deals with emotionally intense subject matter at a late middle school or high school level. I love his books, but I save them for later.

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I think there's the quirkiness involved, that he somehow was intrigued by Lafayette.  Rabbit trailed that on audible and found a reader Roscoe Orman who has done some Sterling biographies and Young Reader's Shakespeare.  We've done other Sterling biographies before.  I think sometimes he *identifies* with the challenges the male characters face.  So for instance with the Wright Brothers biography he would talk about them and how he was like them.  I think he'll like MacBeth and maybe the Teddy Roosevelt, etc.  I had been wanting to introduce him to Alexander the Great.  Surely that will go over big.  I looked through the other Freedman books, but some were not appropriate for him right now and some were less than a credit.  I was mainly looking for books to use up my credits.  Audible runs so many great sales, I always seem to get books on super sale instead of needing to use credits! 

 

Yes, there aren't even a lot of Marrin recordings that I could find.  I figure we'll have to move over to the other services at some point.  I just haven't gotten the paperwork done to get him on their lists.  That way he'll have access to things that aren't generally available.  I assume they'll have Marrin, etc.  The readers may or may not be as good, and by going audible right now they auto load onto his kindle and use an easy to operate picture cover flow.

Edited by OhElizabeth
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