As our wonderful regular blog readers will know, Charlotte is a real history nut and cannot get enough of the amazing crop of children's non-fiction titles that focus on history, particularly the history of Britain and history that Charlotte can more readily identify with.

"The Story of Britain" by Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom is the sort of huge weighty hardback that we absolutely adore. Stretching back in time to when the British Isles first became an actual island, cut off from mainland Europe as sea levels rose, the book takes us through each era in turn, describing how our ancestors may have hunted mammoths, constructed the first tools out of stone then later copper and bronze, through the Roman Invasion, then the Norman Invasion and right through to the 20th Century and times of war.

The double-page panel spreads for each era are absolutely stuffed to the brim with characters, facts and figures from each period of history - introducing some of the pivotal figures in British history from royalty to celebrity, from politician to peasant. We particularly liked the fact that women of history are front and centre in the book quite often, including Mary Shelley (who Charlotte instantly spotted and got VERY excited about! One of these days I'm going to have to let her read Frankenstein I guess!)

The end of the book gets even better, as Mick and Brita come up with a fantastic list of inventions and folk that truly reflect our diverse nation (so utterly awesome to see a shout out to Benjamin Zephaniah! What an awesome dude he is!) I also have to admit to being rather fond of the back-of-the-book quote that says firmly "History doesn't have to be horrible" - Amen to that!

An utterly absorbing and brilliant history book for your younglings.

Charlotte's best bit: Loving Mary Shelley, and the female spy!

Daddy's Favourite bit: Chock full of amazing content, detailed and fantastic - and once again proof positive that history doesn't need to be squishy, yucky or gross to be appealing to kids!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Franklin Watts Publishing)

We read so many news items, and hear so many book folk complaining that there aren't enough engaging non-fiction books around for children of a certain age. It is extremely difficult to find history books that don't dilly-dally down the path of presenting history in the "Horrible Histories" style, where often the fine details are lost under a barrage of fart and poo jokes. It's also difficult to find history books that can engage a child's curiosity and thirst for knowledge while keeping them entertained at the same time.

We've borrowed quite a few books in the Franklin Watts range from our local library, and we've always found them really fantastic whatever the subject.

With Charlotte's current new 'hero' being Samuel Pepys (a fact she proudly presented to her teacher this week - proud dad moment) she grabbed this book about The Great Fire of London in our library trawl.

Sally Hewitt has gathered together a huge collection of resources, and performed the minor miracle of squeezing them into a book. Following on from our excellent experience reading all about the plague, we thought we'd better find out what happened when fire broke out in Pudding Lane in 1666, and quickly spread throughout the city.

Miraculously only 6 people died in the fire, but the loss of property and personal belongings was colossal, and many folk were forced to escape on the stinking River Thames as fire spread.

We thoroughly recommend the Franklin Watts range, they're not too 'Schooly' and this is a particularly brilliant example of what they do.

Charlotte's best bit: Learning all about how Londoners fought the fire with hand pumps and huge heavy leather buckets. Quite a contrast to what we'd use today to fight fires.

Daddy's Favourite bit: Another superb quality title from Franklin Watts

History buffs rejoice! We're taking another look at the excellent "You Wouldn't Want to Be" series, this time delving back into Ancient Roman history for a closer look at Gladiators.

No, not the lycra-clad pommel-wielding TV stars, but the burly men and women who provided entertainment for the Empire, risking life and limb in the arena.

The book is humorously illustrated throughout, in a similar vein to the ever-popular "Horrible Histories" range but I actually prefer Salariya's approach, which retains the humour (and some of the gross bits) but doesn't try to be too clever for its own good, sticking to a formula of mixing fascinating facts with brilliant double-page illustrative spreads to really engage kids and put them right at the heart of the action.

We learn how Gladiators were mostly captured slaves (or in some cases, criminals) who were trained under harsh regimes, with a pretty terrible diet (Porridge with ash for pudding anyone?)

We also learn a rather fascinating fact I hadn't actually seen reproduced anywhere else. There were female gladiators, a prospect that filled Charlotte with glee at the thought of donning a helmet and brandishing a trident in mortal combat. Perhaps that'll be something for the next school history day.

If you're unfamiliar with the Salariya history range, check out our previous article neatly rounding up a few more of these fascinating titles.

Charlotte's best bit: The thought of being the world's first 6 year old female gladiator! (Someone hide the saucepans in case she pinches one for use as a helmet!)

Daddy's Favourite bit: A fascinating glimpse of roman life, literally at the sharp end of providing entertainment for the roman masses!

This was a very tough book to review as dementia is a subject that has been uppermost in our minds of late. Both of Charlotte's great grandmothers are in the early stages of suffering from dementia, and the impact on our families (both on my side and on my wife's side) has been devastating. Two vibrant people are left like completely hollow shells by this progressive disease and sometimes it's really hard to explain to Charlotte what's going on.

We snuggled down with this book and took our time with it because it really does help a lot.

In the story a young boy, Charlie, loves his Grandpa more than anything in the world. Grandpa is always full of fun, always has wise words and is always pleased to see Charlie - making up great games and coming up with daft jokes and crazy tricks to entertain his favourite grandson.

Charlie always looks forward to visiting Grandpa, but one day his Grandpa isn't behaving like he normally does. There are no games, no jokes, in fact it's all the family can do to divert Grandpa's attention away from the window as he listlessly watched the traffic go by.

Charlie is upset, but he comes up with some fantastic ideas to see if he can get a bit of the 'old' Grandpa back. Charlie's patience and love shine through, and his perseverance slowly shows tiny glimmers of paying off as Grandpa shows signs of his old self are still buried inside him.

Even describing the story brings a lump to my throat and this was a book that had Charlotte and I wrapped up in hugs as we both read it quietly.

I tried to explain the science behind dementia, what happens to someone who begins to suffer from it but it was far better to use this book as intended, to explain what was happening to Charlie's grandpa and indeed our own grandparents.

I've seen one or two books dealing with the subject, sometimes they work and sometimes they don't quite hit the mark but this is a very sensitive, thoughtful book and comes highly recommended if dementia is affecting your family in a similar way.

Charlotte's best bit: Charlie doing tricks with Grandpa to cheer him up

Daddy's Favourite bit: Brilliant fun for tiddlers, beautifully illustrated and told

(Kindly sent to us for review by Franklin Watts)

Wolves are often cast as the 'bad guys' in children's stories, but foxes aren't far off the mark either. Sneaky, charming (in their own way) and often with a rumbling tummy, Kimberley's Scary Day shows what happens when a trusting (and rather silly) Guinea Pig named Kimberley falls for the charms and wiles of a fox in disguise. 


It's a very short and sweet book, and there's a nice little cameo at the end that most children will delight at. Great artwork from Ross Collins (who knew that Guinea Pigs had iPods?) and a nice twist on a fairly familiar tale. 


Charlotte's best bit: Foxy shadow on the wall


Daddy's favourite bit: Ross Collins' description of his love of fine Guinea Pig cuisine


Rating: 3 out of 5