D’Aulaire biographies…worth it?

[GoodnightMoogle]

I see many Charlotte Mason curricula that use these books for teaching history. They can be tricky to find for a good price, even used. Beautiful Feet Books is having their annual sale tomorrow, and it’s the cheapest I can find them.

Are these worth it? Are they really that good? Or are there better biographies out there for that age? 

[EKS]

Even though we used them, I never really liked the D'Aulaire books.  They're just kind of...boring.

[Nichola]

We have liked them. The books are well written, and the illustrations are beautiful. There have been a couple that I planned to break up over several readings, and my kids insisted that we read them all the way through in one day because they were enjoying them so much. Wings for Per is my favorite of those in the sale. I thought it did a good job of gently introducing WWII to kids. As far as other similar biographies, I don’t know of any for that age group that are well written and have wonderful illustrations. I really like Jean Fritz’s books, but the illustrations aren’t as beautiful, and they have a narrower focus, mostly on the Revolutionary War period. 

[ScoutTN]

My kids loved them, though we just read them for fun. We did like the mythology books better than the bios, but that is just my kids’ taste in lit.
 

The Greek Myths book has an excellent audio version with lots of famous actors reading each reading a chapter/story. I originally had paperbacks of both mythology books, but we read them so much they fell apart and I got hardbacks. My kids did the NME and d’Aulaires were helpful. 
 

The paperbacks are readily available used and not pricey.

Edited July 1, 2023 by ScoutTN

[lulalu]

We have loved them for the early elementary years. The illustrations are well done, and the writing is also well done. 

[caffeineandbooks]

Some of them (such as the Abraham Lincoln one) are available to borrow for free from Openlibrary.org.  You could check it out now in detail and see if it fits your family's needs, and then decide.

[Ting Tang]

We have a few, and for the most part, I enjoyed them with my children.  I'm pretty sure the biographies are not 100% accurate, but they are to cultivate an interest.  The Greek Myths book was great, but I do feel it was a bit challenging for my then 3rd grader at the time.  

I did buy a few used and a few new.  I use thriftbooks to search for used books, and I also use eBay.  I do have an extra Leif the Lucky (new) if you need that one---I was accidentally sent two of the same book.

[-----]

My dc enjoyed them.  

[HomeAgain]

Youngest ds did not enjoy them. He didn't like the artwork, didn't enjoy the stories. I stopped trying to get him to read them and just found other individual books/stories on the same people for him. 

[Eilonwy]

On 6/30/2023 at 11:21 PM, ScoutTN said:

The Greek Myths book has an excellent audio version with lots of famous actors reading each reading a chapter/story

We loved this!

[Nm.]

My library has them.  Did you check there first?  Beautiful feet discounts them every year.  I found them worth it to read aloud from the library, but not worth it to buy them (unless library didn’t have them, then I might).  We only read them once a year or so.

[GoodnightMoogle]

On 7/1/2023 at 4:32 PM, Ting Tang said:

We have a few, and for the most part, I enjoyed them with my children.  I'm pretty sure the biographies are not 100% accurate, but they are to cultivate an interest.  The Greek Myths book was great, but I do feel it was a bit challenging for my then 3rd grader at the time.  

I did buy a few used and a few new.  I use thriftbooks to search for used books, and I also use eBay.  I do have an extra Leif the Lucky (new) if you need that one---I was accidentally sent two of the same book.

Thank you for the offer! I actually did go ahead and buy them, I think they will be worth having on our shelf.