Graphic Novels . . . I mean Historical Graphic Novels -- A Review

If you will recall from my last Timberdoodle review, I fell in love with their catalogue while Mr. Smackdown enjoyed putting his puzzle globe together.

And if you will also recall, I love books. Love is a rather strong word. I love my husband. OK, I REALLY LIKE and ENJOY books. For this very reason I started my own meme If You Give a Mom a Book,

that ONLY two WONDERFUL people have participated in thus far. (Don’t feel like I am laying a guilt trip on any of you who have yet to participate. I would never do that.) {grin}

But I love appreciate swapping stories about books!

The boys and I recently had the chance to read several books from a different genre. Not one to read comic books, I was still interested in a set of eleven historical novels titled Stories from History: Graphic Novels featured in the Timberdoodle catalogue for $16.95.

Since reading Honey for a Child’s Heart, I have become more aware of the content in our literature. After surveying what we had been reading in school, I realized I had failed to teach the boys about people God created--who affect our world to this day. Graphic Novels seemed to meet that need. Additionally, I appreciated Timberdoodle’s description of this set of 11 books:

Tales from the past meet modern-day storytelling! Epic battles, secret plots, and brave warriors await readers in the nonfiction Stories From History Graphic Novel series. Discover history in a fast-paced format, taking readers right to the action! History has never been this exciting!

Please note: Page 13 of Gladiators and the Story of the Colosseum and page 26 of The Life of Leonardo Da Vinci may need a touch of white-out depending on your family's modesty standards. Also, The Discovery of T. Rex is not written from a young-earth perspective so it does make statements such as, "This huge beast lived 85-65 million years ago..." A touch of white out and/or some clarifying discussion can easily rectify that!

Features

Full-Color illustrations

Fact Boxes

Timeline, glossary, and index

I must admit that sometimes I don’t have time to preview what we are going to read. However, due to Timberdoodle’s note, I knew about questionable content ahead of time.

I don’t subscribe to the belief that my children should only be exposed to Christian books. Our world isn’t “Christian.” As a home educator of my children, it is my job to prepare my children to think with a Christian worldview in a secular world. They need to learn how to look at history, events, interactions with people, etc. in the context of how these situations fit into the grand scheme of the drama God has put us here on earth to partner with Him.

These books provided an avenue to discuss slavery, fighting, battle, the quest for power, art, compassion, perseverance, and endurance, to name a few. We thought about how we would react in the situations we read about.

Besides the history we have learned about in our Bible reading and snippets from our FIAR books, the Graphic Novels were the boys first encounter with a book dedicated to discussing and teaching history.

The recommended ages for these books are 8-14 year olds. Timberdoodle took a bit of a gamble on my kids . . . and won. Mr. Smackdown and Mr. Me-Too enjoyed these Graphic Novels whose topics were:

• Pizarro and the Incas
• The Life of Anne Frank
• The Building of the Great Pyramid
• The Life of Julius Caesar
• The Life of Christopher Columbus
• The Race to the South Pole
• Gladiators and the Story of the Colosseum
• The Life of Alexander the Great
• Elizabeth I and the Spanish Armada
• The Life of Leonardo Da Vinci
• The Discovery of T. Rex

My 3 and 5 year old sat enraptured on watching human nature unfold before them. It really was a privilege to be a part of this learning experience and interaction with my boys as their view of the world grew.

I would recommend this set of books definitely for the age level suggested, grades 3rd-8th. These would be especially beneficial to a young lad who struggled with the typical textbook approach to learning about historical events. If you have children who enjoy snuggling up on the couch for a good read . . . these books are applicable to a younger generation, but you may have to modify the content. Be prepared for questions. There is nothing wrong with questions. Who better to answer them then you?!

This is a Mama Buzz review written by Granola Mom 4 God. The product was provided by Timberdoodle for this review.

Technorati Tags: Timberdoodle,Graphic Novels,Comic books,MamaBzz