Knights and Castles: A Nonfiction Companion to The Knight at Dawn

I love how the illustrations help show the reader what the armor and castles (etc.) looked like. It can be hard to read so much new information without previous knowledge so it's nice to have the pictures. The margin notes show a great model of what margin notes can do in research and your own work. I learned a lot reading this book and I now want to read the rest of the magic tree house books (fiction and non-fiction).

This was my favorite of the non fiction Magic Tree House books that I read. I probably enjoyed it most because it was about a topic I was interested in. It would be a good source for a project about medieval times, knights or castles. I think kids would like it because it is a quick easy read but still has a lot of good information to keep their attention.

This chapter book is filled with informational text and illustrations! I think these types of chapter books should be read by higher elementary grades like 3-5. There is a lot of text on each page along with a variety of vocabulary words throughout the book. The majority of the vocabulary words are italicized and written out phonetically for readers to sound out. Some definitions were given on the side of the page but not for every word.

There were a lot of illustrations in this book. There was probably one per page, which in my opinion is too many for a chapter book. Sometimes there were too many that I felt like it was overwhelming. There were some illustrations where there were labels that went along with some of the vocabulary words show more so I thought that was a good way to have the reader be able to visualize and understand the text.

This book was very informative about the Middle Ages and it felt like I was going back in time. The different chapters discussed the different types of people who lived and worked in the kingdom. It talked about how someone becomes a knight, what the king and queen do, it also discussed some famous people during that time period. The authors and illustrators made it very easy to learn about this time period and feel like I was able to go back in time and experience some of the time periods. show less

This particular book in this nonfiction fast track series, written by Will Osborne, gives the reader factual information about knights and castles. Having been mentioned in the other Magic treehouse series, this contains real illustrations and fun facts about both along with the factual information. This book can be used for a research project in the middle to upper elementary level grades.

1. Main characters
Knights and Castles

2. Write the summary of the book.

The Middle Ages began about 450 A.D. They lasted over 1,000 years. The Middle Ages were a time of war and fighting. During the Middle Ages, nearly all the land in Europe belonged to kings. Each King's land was called kingdom.
Castles were important part of the feudal system. They were built to protect lords and their land from enemy attackers. When a stone catle was complete, it was very hard for an enemy to get inside.
The Age of Castles lasted nearly 500 years. Eventually, though, people stopped waiting to live in castles. As time went by, new weapons were invented. The most powerful of these weapons were the cannon. Cannons could fire heavy stone or iron balls show more against castle walls with great force. Even the strongest castles could not stand up against cannon fire for long.

3. Write your feelings about the book in details.

The lord and lady slept in a big bed in the master bedroom of the catle. The bed was very fancy with curtains all around it. When the lord visited other castles, he often took his bed and bathtub with him!(see p 48)

It's so strange to bring them to the other places.

4. Write the words, phrases or sentences that impressed you most in the book and explain why they impressed you. Or you could write your questions about the book in details.

Noble marriages were often arrange by couple's parents. Sometimes bride and groom didn't even meet each other until the wedding day!(see p 41)

How owesome to be decided to get married without seeing eath other. show less

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