"Famous Men of" books by Greenleaf Press....

[anewday]

are surprisingly dry. :001_huh:

 

While I love how well they're written and the great info in them...as read alouds to my grammar age kiddos...I have to fight not slipping into a monotone trance. LOL

 

Am I the only one who thinks so? These ARE great books...maybe something is just wrong with me. lol

 

Or maybe we've been reading too much historical fiction....:tongue_smilie::confused:

[Wendy in ME]

We have been using them for 2 years. Last year we read Famous Men of Greece and Rome and this year we have read Famous Men of the Middle Ages. My boys are 10 and 12 this year so they are a bit older. We have enjoyed them but even my 10yo watches the History Channel all of the time. We are sort of a history family so I guess every family will be different. Most of the chapters seem short enough to hold our attention.

[vettechmomof2]

My daughter keeps sneaking them into her bed at night to read. She is a voaracious reader though and when I tried to get her to read just 1 person she finished the whole book in 20 minutes.:tongue_smilie: I quizzed her and she retained it all.

THere is nothing wrong with finding some things dry when others do not. My dauhgter reads my college text books for fun and w ehave often fought over who gets to read them.

So define dry, exactly.;)

[dragons in the flower bed]

My kids like them, too. I could take them or leave them. Genevieve Foster is a much more interesting historical biographer, IMO. My kids disagree. I think it's because they've been raised on this old-fashioned tight This Is What They Did writing style, but I was raised on Newberrys that are all about the emotional processes of the characters.

 

I find James Baldwin's writing style horrendously dull, though. I dread going through Fifty Famous Stories Retold.

[abreakfromlife]

one word - librivox

[Carol in Cal.]

Specifically, the Greek and Roman ones are a good, thorough but not too deep intro to the 'big' characters that I have wanted my DD to be familiar with. A nice complement to the mythology books that I also have read to her for familiarity, and good background for later delving into the classics in translation. (In our house, that is all the further we will get. No reading Homer in the original here.)

 

I'm not as fond of the Middle Ages one, as I think SOTW covers most of the same material quite well.

[anewday]

I think it's reading them aloud that's the problem. It doesn't hold my girls attention. They are used to the Newberry books and historical fiction. If I have them reading it to themselves, I think it would help.

 

 

The one we're going through currently is the Famous Men of the Renaissance and it's very matter-of-fact. Dates, information. It's because it's not written in a storyteller format that it bogs down. I have loved reading SOTW and the Biblioplan read alouds this year have been great. My girls tell me, "We like stories where the people are talkign to each other." :tongue_smilie:

[Ellie]

Do you use Greenleaf Press's Guides as well as the Famous Men of...books? It's the Guides that add meat to the Famous Men books.

[melissa123]

:iagree: The Guides are fantastic. I was leary about adding one more component to history this year, but the Famous Men of Greece Guide has made FMG much more interesting. There are the usual comprehension questions, as well as thought provoking ones. An example: for the chapter on Pisistratus, the first question is: "In what ways did Pisistratus set out to make himself the "master of Athens?" What do you think of his actions?" Then "How would you compare the three rulers of Athens you have just read about? Would you rather live under Solon, Pisistratus, or Draco? What were the strengths and weaknesses of each man?" I love those kinds of questions! (These questions are from the original FMG Guide - I know Memoria Press has a guide, but I haven't see it.)

[Keep Trying]

Why isnt there a famous men of America?  The pain and courage and changes in our past is critical to pass on! Anyone have a recommendations?