Jane M. Bingham

Medieval World is a non-fiction book aimed at middle school readers that provides an overview of the Medieval period of history from about 500-1500 AD. It covers European historical events starting with the Byzantine Empire and traveling through the centuries to include Viking conquests, the rise of Anglo-Saxons in England and their later defeat by the Normans, as well as Charlemagne’s Empire, and the Holy Roman Empire. It discusses the roles of knights, nobles, and peasants, along with show more what life was like in castles, villages, and towns. It tells of pilgrimages, the Crusades, and the Black Death. It also branches out to relate events in other parts of the world as well, including the Middle East, Africa, India, China, and Japan. Then it takes readers to North and South American, where we learns of the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas, as well as other Indigenous peoples. Then it wraps up with a discussion of the art, ideas, and inventions of the Renaissance period and the voyages of several famous explorers. It also has a glossary and is fully indexed, in addition to providing a handy timeline chart that shows how these events were happening in different parts of the world at the same time.

Medieval World is an excellent overview of the major events and players in the Medieval period of history. While it doesn’t go into great depth about these events, with each one only encompassing a page or two, it is very well put together. It must have been difficult to decide which events to include from a thousand years of world history, but I thought the author did a great job of choosing the most important ones and synopsizing each in such a way as to be understandable to the book’s target audience. Each page (or two) has a handy timeline to let the reader know what years are being covered and color coding to tell where in the world these things took place, as well as a map of the area being discussed for visualization and an important dates box to pare it down to a bare-bones quick reference. The book is also beautifully illustrated, not only with images of world leaders and other events, but also with detailed drawings of homes and villages, etc. to show what day-to-day life was like. These illustrations include cutaways to “see inside” and little side notes to show where things are located or to better describe what’s happening.

I also loved the diversity of the book. As a Caucasian person of European decent, when I hear the word medieval, I typically think of knights, castles, tournaments, and such, but of course there’s so much more than that. This book provides plenty of those things, but I was thrilled to discover that it also explores this period of history all over the world and how the different groups of people came to explore, trade, or learn more about each other. I thought this gave the book a very holistic and well-rounded feel. The only concerning thing I found is that it does talk about wars and people being killed and sometimes this is depicted in the illustrations as well. However, it’s usually no more than a brief mention, and aside from one bloody picture showing Aztecs making human sacrifices, I didn’t notice anything else particularly graphic, so overall, I’d say it’s appropriate for the middle-schoolers at which it’s aimed. Medieval World was an interesting read that I would definitely recommend for the young history buff. It even taught me a few things as an adult. I think it could also be a great way to gauge a child’s interest in certain events, providing a jumping off point for more in-depth learning. Medieval World is part of the Usborne World History series that has left me very interested in checking out the other periods of history that are covered in this series. show less

While this was a nice book, my biggest complaint is its misleading title. Yes, the series is "War Stories" but I wonder if a child stumbling upon this book in the library or book store would think "animals in war" or "heroic stories about animals." Truly, this is a book for young kids about animals in war. It would be a good resource for a report.

However, I'm still hung up on the misleading title. First of all, it's really about animals in war. Different animals used through the ages are show more briefly mentioned, including a few stories of specific animals.

Secondly, I have a difficult time using the word "heroic" for animals in war. While I don't doubt that animals can be heroic and that animals trained for war can be heroic, does it make an animal a hero just because it's in a war?

Take, for instance, the carrier pigeon. A huge percentage (I think as many as 90 percent) died on missions. These birds were trained to essentially fly home. Does following its instinct and flying home, even in the midst of bullets, make it a hero? No. True, there may be some pigeons who understood, to some degree, the urgency of their mission and perhaps that does make it a hero.

Only one animal in this whole book really convinced me of its heroicness. A dog, who understood what grenades were, took a grenade and ran with it to save his human comrades. The others? Maybe they were heroic. But the case wasn't well presented. Doing what you were trained and bred to do does not make one heroic.

While perhaps the title is a minor point, I think that it is misleading to a degree that this book may miss its audience and disappoint those who do find it. show less

A super short ebook available for free on Kindle Unlimited, it quickly describes the Triangle, the mysteries that have occurred there, the various theories, and the scientific explanations. It includes photos and illustrations. This book is meant for elementary level students but I really liked reading the very short simple explanations.

I've enjoyed Roald Dahl's works quite a bit as a child and reading the biography of such a beloved author is not only enlightening, but inspiring. The author of the biography chose to focus highly on how each experience mentioned impacted the books Roald Dahl wrote later on. As both an aspiring children's author and child care worker, this makes me very happy. Each experience we have is important. This is what I would focus on as an educator. When we build on our own strengths and show more experiences, we can make beautiful things. show less