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My year 6 daughter was recently asked to interview someone who was alive during the second world war says Nichola Gale. She has no close family relation to approach – a fact that brought home to me what an important tool history books and, in particular, historical fiction, can be for ensuring that the past stays alive for today’s children.
past keeping the
28 Learning Support Spring Term [1] 2011
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Terry Deary’s Viking Tales – The Sword of the Viking King Terry Deary A & C Black Paperback £4.99
Grim Gruesome Viking Villain – The Cursed Sword Rosalind Kerven Talking Stone Paperback £5.99
Savage barbarians may not seem the ideal focus for a series for younger children, but when those barbarians are the vikings, they become magnets for reluctant boy readers. The Viking Tales series are an irresistible combination of Norse mythology, Horrible History humour and historical facts. After all, the vikings were brave men and great sailors as well as being notoriously cruel warriors. Fans of Terry Deary will also be pleased to note that knights, Romans, Greeks and Egyptians are given a similar treatment in his reader-friendly series which are ideal for those children just too young for Horrible Histories but who still like a touch of gruesome seasoning to their reading matter. And prepare to don your leather vest and helmet and smell the salt of the high seas with Rosalind Kerven’s page-turning introduction to viking child catcher, Grim Gruesome whose hypnotic powers and pus-oozing fingers will strike a chord of delicious fear in anyone with a taste for high adventure.
The Dumpy Princess Karin Fernald Frances Lincoln Hardback £9.99
Whatever your opinion of the royal family, the turbulent lives of Britain’s kings and queens make for fascinating reading. The Dumpy Princess tells the story of the childhood of one of our less glamorous, but most important monarchs, Queen Victoria. Witty, exciting and with tongue firmly in cheek, this is a lighthearted look at a royal childhood, complete with pantomime villains, penniless mothers and a plain little girl with no chin who, despite the best efforts of the wicked Sir John Conroy, became Queen of England. With a definite nod to history and a huge thumbs up to humorous storytelling for younger children, this is an ideal book for newly independent readers or as a read-aloud for grownups with a yen for German accents.
Nichola Gale is a children’s literature specialist