The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child, Volume 2: The Middle Ages: From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of the Renaissance

I really enjoyed the thoroughness of this history book. Ms Bauer does not neglect any part of the world in her histories. It is told in a story like manner, much like Hillyer however it sometimes seemed a little too juvenile or dumbed down. We supplemented heavily with biographies and with A Child's History of the World. It was interesting to note the differences between the two histories and how each author looked at things just a little different. We will continue to use SOTW as a spine so that we don't miss any of the out of the way things that aren't typically covered in other histories even though the quality of the literature wasn't exactly what I had hoped.

This is the second volume of the "Story of the World" series--covering world history from the fall of Rome to the beginning of the Renaissance. Like it's predecessor, "Ancient Times", "The Middle Ages" is written more like a narrative than as a collection of facts. As a children's book, it does not go in depth on any one area. (and in fact it specifically omits an explanation of the Inquisition due to its inherent cruelty) But it gives a broad overview of history around the world, from the castles of Europe to the shores of New Zealand. Check it out.
--J.

This seems like a great series and I really want to read these with Elli later on. It would be a really good intro to the history of the world, not just Canada, that I completely missed out on.

With DVDs