Welcome to Homework and Horseplay. Today I am sharing my Carole P. Roman Books and Collections Review with all of you. If you have been following me for any length of time, you know that I am a self-proclaimed book hoarder. I received three children’s books from Carole P. Roman, and I am thrilled to add them to our home library. After all, one can never have too many books!
What books did I receive?
I received the following three books from Carole P. Roman’s “If You Were Me and Lived in… An Introduction to Civilizations Throughout Time” collection:
- If You Were Me and Lived in… Viking Europe
- If You Were Me and Lived in… the American West
- If You Were Me and Lived in… Renaissance Italy
The author recommends the “If You Were Me and Lived in… An Introduction to Civilizations Throughout Time” books to be read by or to children ages 8-15. However, for younger children these books would be a good introduction to getting to know and understand different time periods.
If You Were Me and Lived in… Viking Europe
If You Were Me and Lived in… Viking Europe is told from the perspective of a child born in 870 AD in the northern part of Europe on the coast of Norway. In this book you learn that a Viking is an individual who went on overseas expeditions. During the Viking Europe age most people went by two names. Their given name and their father’s name. For example, a man named Eric may name his son Knut Ericson and his daughter Hilde Ericdottir.
During the Viking Europle era there were three classes of people. These classes were:
- Jarls
Jarls ran the government and were influential people. Jarl families were wealthy and owned many horses, a nice home, and owned slaves. - Karls
Karls were free peasants or farmers. This class of people owned farms, land, and cattle. They spent most of their time running their farms. - Thralls
Thralls were slaves. These people were treated poorly, and had to do all the hard labor in the village.
Throughout this book we also discovered things such as the food the people ate, the skills children had to learn, and the traditions the families followed. The traditions of the Viking people are very different from the modern world. Jack was appalled when he found out girls were often married before they were 15 years old.
If You Were Me and Lived in… the American West
If You Were Me and Lived in… the American West is told from the perspective of a twelve year old boy in 1843. The boy and his family were part of the “Wagon Train of 1843“, and were heading to Independence, Missouri to farm the fertile land. Throughout the book you learn about the many hardships of the 2,000 mile journey to the west. For five months the boy walked ten to twenty miles per day next to wagon before reaching his new home. (That is a crazy amount of walking!) Everyone on the “Wagon Train of 1843” faced illness, accidents, being stuck in the mud, crazy amounts of dust, and even sometimes conflicts with the natives. Sadly not everyone who started the journey were able to reach their destination.
After months of traveling, the boy’s parents were granted 640 acres of free land. The journey to the west may have been difficult, but their trials were far from done. The land had to be cleared, a house built, and the land prepared for planting. All the hard work was worth it though. Before they knew it a town with a saloon, general store, a blacksmith, a church grew up near the one room schoolhouse.
This book is full of interesting fun facts. Jack especially loved learning about the boy’s sister having to gather buffalo chips. In case you didn’t know, buffalo chips are not chips at all. It is buffalo poop! I can’t tell you how much giggling occurred after reading that particular snippet.
If You Were Me and Lived in… Renaissance Italy
If You Were Me and Lived in… Renaissance Italy is told from the perspective of a girl who lived in the year 1481 in Florence, Italy. Life was changing after years of hardship during the Middle Ages. Everything from art to science were being viewed from a new point of view, and it was an exciting time to live. During this time period Florence became an important trading and banking center in the world.
Boys and girls were raised very differently back in Renaissance Italy. The girl’s brothers started their education with a tutor, and then were sent to a private school to study things such as Latin and philosophy. The girl only had a tutor, and her studies were largely revolved around becoming an efficient housewife. Although there were a lot of rules to follow, life was a lot of fun. There were plenty of sporting events, festivals, dances, singing, music, and games to play with your siblings. Some of the world’s greatest artists came from this time era.
What Jack found the most shocking about Renaissance Italy was that everyone, including children, only drank ale or watered wine because water was considered dangerous to drink. He also found it very interesting that a lot of people ran their business out of the front of their homes. We live in a 1890 Victorian home, and Jack decided our house would be perfect to run a shop in.
Some great additions…
In addition to learning about the every day life of people during these time periods, Carole P. Roman includes “famous people” and glossary sections in the back of each book. We got to learn a little bit about people such as:
- Artemisia Gentileschi
- Galileo Galilei
- Leonardo Da Vinci
- Annie Oakley
- Daniel Boone
- Wild Bill Hickok
- Erik the Red
- Leif Erikson
- Cnut the Great
The glossary pages are full of wonderful vocabulary terms. We set aside our traditional vocabulary and spelling work, and used the terms included in these books for a few weeks. It was nice to change things up a bit.
Homework and Horseplay’s final thoughts…
I am so happy that we now have these amazing books as part of our home children’s library. I am ashamed to admit this, but I had never heard of Carole P. Roman before completing my Carole P. Roman Books and Collection Review. I don’t know how we have been homeschooling for so many years without these books!
The rest of the titles in this great history series are:
- If You Were Me and Live In… Ancient China
- If You Were Me and Live In… Ancient Greece
- If You Were Me and Live In… the Ancient Mali Empire
- If You Were Me and Live In… Colonial America
- If You Were Me and Live In… Elizabethan England
- If You Were Me and Live In… the Mayan Empire
- If You Were Me and Live In… the Middle Ages
I think these books would make a great addition to any unit study for the correlating time eras. I can’t wait to purchase the rest of the series to add to our own personal collection. Thank you Carole P. Roman for making history come alive for my family. We absolutely loved learning about all the ins and outs of life for so many different people. There are so many things we take for granted in our lives, and I think reading these books was a real eye opener for my children.
Thank you for reading my Carole P. Roman Books and Collections Review…
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