Biographies/history for 7yo DD

[WineOhWhy]

Dd 7 (y3) is a good reader. She has ploughed through the usual fiction - Michael morpurgo, roald Dahl, Harry potter, clarice bean etc, and her teacher has suggested she expands her range by trying more non-fiction, esp. biographies or history. Our local bookshop does not have a great range of non-fiction for kids, and nothing jumped out at the library (in part because we were not really sure what to look for). although she has read some of the war based morpurgos and enjoyed them, I don't think she would be quite ready for Anne Frank. She does not seem keen on the horrible histories. I appreciate I need to find stuff that fits with her interests, but a few suggestions to start with would be appreciated. I think she would be put off if it was too dry, but she is generally a curious little person.

Well they are fiction but the 'my story' series published by scholastic. Real events though history, written as diaries from a fictional person but the history is all correct and real peaople are mentioned. Lots of them, each one set in a different time.
'Chinese Cinderella' by adeline yen mah is her autobiography based on her childhood in china during WW2. It is aimed at children (falling leaves I think is her full autobiography and written for adults)
'the silver sword' by Ian Serraillier is again fiction but based on a true story/fact- WW2 poland
Floella Benjammin wrote an autobiography about her childhood for children 'coming to England' about coming to england as a child many years ago.

At the moment that is all I can think of, hope it helps

Dd2 (also year 3) likes biographies and histories. In the last couple of years she's read all the Little House books, When Hitler stole Pink Rabbit (Judith Kerr's autobiography), several of the My Story ones, mostly those either about princesses or WWII ones. I think she read Vicarage Family (Noel Streatfeild's autobiography) at my parents too.

She chose to buy Anne Frank's diary last term with some money she bought, and liked it enough to ask if there was a sequel Most of Anne Frank is about her feelings etc. not the nastiness outside if you get me. (Actually I have a sort of sequel, it's a what happened next, but have chosen to withhold it for now for obvious reasons)

On the history side there's Geoffrey Treese. Cue for Treason is his best known history, but there are several more. Dd2 preferred his Bannermere series, which were not written as histories, but I think were round 1950s and so are quite dated (in a nice way). A lot of these aren't in print but you can pick them up on ebay and second hand market, and some were recently reprinted by GGBP.

You say she has read Roald Dahl - has she read his autobiographies 'Boy' and 'Flying Solo'? My DS read them and really enjoyed them.

EH Gombrich's "A Little History of The World" is aimed at children, and is nicely written. It covers a very wide sweep, with quite short chapters, might be a good starting point for finding out what sort of area of history she might be interested in finding out more?

Could you order some books into your local library? I do this a lot with DC. Get online & browse the county catalog & then pick up at local library.

I find Horrible Histories a bit too horrible for under 8s. :)

DD enjoyed the Philosophy Files amongst other things that were recommended on this thread.

I'd definitely agree with the Little House books.

Maybe some of Michelle Magorian ones - spoonful of Jam?
Eva Ibbotson some of her children books are historical - Star of the Kazan and To the river sea. Or a Countess below stairs

'The diary of' series are in the same vein as 'My Story' series (I think the series is also called History Diaries)

Little house on the prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilde and all of the sequels they are based on her childhood. So agree with that and Judith Kerr.

The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis is about a young girl in Afghanistan under the Taliban. There is are 2sequels I think. Fiction but based on fact and experiences.

Roll of Thunder hear my cry? But if you dont think she is ready for Anne Frank then maybe wait for this.

A gathering of days by Joan Blos. Fiction, written as a diary but historical. As is
Catherine called birdy by Karen Cushman

As for non fiction that isn't HH. Umm DangerZone/you wouldn't want to be or 'The Gruesome truth about' which is less gruesome than HH.

The Lion's Cub by HM Hoover is a good one - it's a historical biography of one of the last prince's of a tribe out in one of the Stans, as "the Russians were coming". He was basically taken as a hostage to Moscow, to ensure his father's good behaviour, and eventually allowed to go home after years away. It was a bit of history I'd not heard before and it was fascinating.

shoot me now for that damned apostrophe

Just thought of a couple more.

The Lion Children is an amazing book. It was written by three children who moved to the bush in Botswana with their mother to study lions & I'd recommend it to anyone, adult or child. (It also has fantastic photos of the wildlife.)

The other is A London Girl of the 1870s - I read a bit of this to dd when she was studying the Victorians at school, and she was so fascinated by it that we ended up reading the whole book (plus the sequel A london girl of the 1880s which continues the autobiography). It might be a bit hard going for your dd to read herself, but I think the reason that dd liked it so much was that Molly, the girl of the title is so much like a little girl of 7 or 8 of today despite life being quite different (eg her brothers go to school but she doesn't).

Usborne have a reasonable range of biographies/ histories in their young reading and true stories ranges. DS hates horrid histories, but gulps down the facts in these. If she wants some quick and easy readers, there are fact books to go with all the Magic Tree House series
www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=magic+tree+house+research+guide&x=0&y=0

If she likes queens/ princesses, how about these:
www.amazon.co.uk/Anne-Boleyn-Queen-Lost-Was/dp/190409578X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327959443&sr=1-1
www.amazon.co.uk/Queen-Victoria-Woman-Ruled-Was/dp/1904095828/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327959474&sr=1-1
www.amazon.co.uk/Elizabeth-Virgin-Queen-Who-Was/dp/190497709X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327959998&sr=1-1
(DS1 adored the nelson and Napoleon books in this series, I realise I am stereotyping her here, no reason that your DD shouldn't read Nelson/ Napoleon etc)

Biography/ autobiography:
The Children of Charlecote (www.amazon.co.uk/Children-Charlecote-Philippa-Pearce/dp/0192751808/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327959566&sr=1-1) is a sad, but compelling, picture of life for the upper classes 9and could lead very nicely into lots of other Philippa Pearce)
Period Piece by Gwen raverat: I remember loving this as a child, but can't quite remember how old I was (maybe 8/9?)
Judith Kerr's "When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit" was another of my favourite books, but I would steer clear of the sequels as i think they're too dark for a 7 year old
"The Endless Steppe" by Esther Hautzig (prob long out of print, but easy to get 2nd hand I expect) was another favourite of mine, about a girl transported to Siberia by Stalin (OK, so I clearly had a rather gloomy taste in books). And on the subject of heartbreaking books, how about "I am David"
Have fun!

my kids (also year 3) are really enjoying the Hutchinson Book of Kings and Queens by Tony (baldrick) Robinson with illustrations by various people - it's a complete history of our kings and queens, but told with kids in mind so peppered with silly facts.

Thanks all. I am going to order a couple of these from amazon (think DD will love the blitz my story for example) and look out for others at the library. Also realised we have the 2 roald Dahl ones from a box set and don't think she has read them.