Historical Mini Reveiws

Notes: There is an illustrated edition titled "A Little Christmas Carol" that is super cute. It isn't abridged, but all the characters are animals!

Notes: The MC does disobey her mother a lot, so that is something to consider.

Notes: Warning: if you watched the Shirley Temple version and read this book expecting her father to come back...well, real life is different.

Notes: This book is set during the French Revolution, so it is violent. Guillotines, blood, graverobbers, etc.. There are also a couple instances of swearing.

Notes: Since this book is sent during the Civil War and covers some heavy topics, I recommend pre-reading it before your kids read it.

Notes: Few people know just how many books Louisa May Alcott wrote. This is one of them.

Notes: Anne Shirley is so famous, I'm not sure I need to say anything. If you think I should, please contact me. (One character says the "N" word once in Rainbow Valley)

Notes: Really sweet story, but SPOILER!!! Diamond dies.

Notes: Some of the horses, including Black Beauty, are treated poorly, and one horse is shot. This might bother sensitive readers.

Notes: Visit Cranford, where one must be genteel at all times. One does not discuss finances, even if one is arranging how to help another.

Notes: This book is funny and sweet. Warning: Rose does marry one of her cousins in the sequel, "Rose in Bloom."

Notes: Woodhouse, clever and agreeable, has a inclination to become a matchmaker...but will any of her predictions come about, or will she only cause heartache by her meddling?

Notes: What would you wish for if you could have one wish a day? That is what the children in this book must decide.

Notes: Although written for a younger audience, this book addresses some of the evils of the Ku Klux Klan...which you may want to discuss.

Notes: Set in the Limberlost forest, this book is rich in setting. There are some intense scenes with ruffians.

Notes: G. A. Henty was a prolific writer, covering time periods from Ancient Egypt in "A Cat of the Bubastes" to his own time of the late 1800s. His books are some of my brothers' favorites. If you have a reluctant reader who is daunted by the size of the books, I recomend reading some of his short stories.

Notes: Victorian villas beside a lake, deserted when the lake dried up, perfect for adventure!

Notes: I didn't write down all of Mrs. Hill's books, because she wrote a lot, but I have liked every one that I have read. If any Christian movie studios want to make a Halmark-type movie, they should pick up some of these books! I've read a lot of them, and they are all sweet and wonderful. Ignore many of the book covers they aren't...accurate.

Notes: This popular mystery series has been around for decades...but avoid the newest books. They have gone sideways.

Notes: This book is so sweet! There is one scary part where the people she is staying with think that the house is haunted, but SPOILER!!! it's just Heidi sleepwalking because she is so homesick.

Notes: Travel through time with cousins Beth and Patrick in this Focus on the Family series.

Notes: What if there was a portal to another world behind your baseball field and the groundskeeper was a sword-bearing wizard? Cool, right? By the way, this book series gets pretty intense at times, what with toothy crows, evil warlords, corrupt politicians, human witches, and so on.

Notes: Another lost treasure form Louisa May Alcott, this book is about being patient through trials.

Notes: If your daughter wants to read gothic fiction, and you don't want to do vampires, this book is an option. It is my opinion that the Bronte sisters did NOT have a traumatic childhood, they just liked to write books that would shock everybody. SPOILERS!!! The house is not haunted, it's just Mr. Rotchester's crazy wife, Mr. Rochester almost marries Jane while he is married to his original wife, his wife also is violent and occasionally traverses the house, terrifying Jane.

Notes: This is a publishing house. Everything that I have read by them is great. They do a lot of historical fiction set in Bible times.

Notes: David is an amazing violinist, and a cheerful little boy, despite that his father has died.

Notes: This book is set in during the aftermath of the Jacobite uprising of 1745 and will make more sense with some background knowledge of the historical events.

Notes: Will Kilmeny ever speak again? She used to, but now she doesn't. The doctor says that only a great mental and emotional effort would restore her speech.

Notes: Both sweet and sinister, this book intertwines all sorts of people, from Amy Dorrit born in the Marshalsea, to Edmund Sparker the none-to-brilliant, to Rigaud the murderer. (He's creepy.) There is also some bad language.

Notes: If one ever decides to try homesteading, one must take these books along. The author, in telling her story, explains how to make everything from sausage to log cabins, how to harvest ice, how to clean a rifle, how to skin a pig, how to smoke meat, how to teach school. As for potential concerns, Laura admits that she finds church boring.

Notes: This story is so sweet!

Notes: You've probably watched (at some point) a variation of this book.

Notes: This book is considered the best-written of Jane Austen's books.

Notes: Milly-Molly-Mandy lives with her father and mother and grandfather and grandmother in the white thatched cottage at the end of the village.

Note: Not to be confused with an American book of the same name, this book is about the cotton mills in the north of England. (I really like the BBC adaptation)

Notes: Jane Austen write this book as a satire of Gothic novels. It is so funny!

Notes: Like all of Dicken's novels, this book has a plot that takes many twists and turns, involving all sorts of people, from a murderous madman, to a doll's dressmaker.

Notes: Anne Elliot is done with love...or she was until Captain Wentworth showed up again.

Notes: It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man of good fortune must be in want of a wife.

Notes: This little mongoose with protect his family, even if it means fighting the cobras.

Notes: Um...I usually like classics, but this one was a little boring. An abridged version might be better.

Notes: Like little house in the big woods, but in the south.

Notes: Elanor and Marianne are two sisters who love each other dearly, even though they are as different as, well, sense and sensibility.

Notes: I have not read all the stories, so I can't vouch for them all. But the ones that I have read, I have liked. Yes, they are a little gruesome at times. (someone gets their thumb chopped off) There also is some swearing. And Sherlock is rather addicted to Cocaine. Doctor Watson tells him to leave off it, but he doesn't.

Notes: Ok...who lets their twelve-year-olds sail to an island on a lake by themselves? Great adventure, though!

Notes: Tom does all sorts of crazy things, from playing hooky, to sneaking around a graveyard, to...well, anything! He's very superstitious and disobedient. Also, the "N" word is used several times, along with incorrect stereotypes.

Notes: Very fun story, where the children have ordinary adventures...except that their father is away, and they don't know why. SPOILER!!! He's in prison for espionage, which he didn't commit.

Notes: This is an assigned book for the Notgrass homeschool curriculum...either economics or american history.

Notes: What would you do if you knew that there was a secret garden? Mary Lennox decides to find it. Um...she decides that there is Good Magic. This is in the real world. If you take it as Mrs. Sowerby take it as, that is, that Mary really means God but doesn't quite know, then it's fine.

Notes: The Story Girl has a normal name...but it doesn't fit her, so everyone calls her The Story Girl. She can tell tales that absorb the hearer. Not magically, since this is in the real world.

Notes: Very self-explanatory title...but do the children find the treasure?

Notes: Not for kids! Seriously, it's all about the danger of drugs and how they destroy your life.

Notes: This is in an alternat world in which James III is king and all sorts of things happen.

Notes: This is the classic pirate tale. Yes, there is a lot of drinking by the pirates, but Doctor Livesey explains to anyone who will listen that it will be the death of them...along with malaria.

Notes: Betsy is sent to live with her cousins in the country and she is so worried that they will be uncivilized.

Notes: This book could also be called "Husbands and Sons"