Can you recommned me a history book aimed at 10-12 year olds...

[ampere]

Like a say a Dorling Kindersley one?

A 'dip in and out' of one as history 'back-up' so we can place the Vikings and Tudors in a sequential time line.

Note: I don't like those 'bitty' ones with dozens of 'boxes' stating a fact or captioning a photo/picture of an artifact or event. I want an illustrated book which you can 'read'. THIS happened because of THAT, That happened because of the OTHER. The former look great as you open them, but they're really distracting to actually read!

There's a Horrible Histories clipfile called Terrible Timeline - I think the pages were given out with the magazine years ago. We got a copy from a car boot but I think you can still pick them up on Ebay. They're pretty good if you want things in sequence order and with family trees etc.

Our Island Story by H E Marshall goes through English (British, even!) history chronologically, and covers the basics very well with a few extra stories thrown in.

It was officially approved by the Telegraph as doing history "properly" as opposed to trendily.

^Our Island Story by H E Marshall goes through English (British, even!) history chronologically, and covers the basics very well with a few extra stories thrown in.

It was officially approved by the Telegraph as doing history "properly" as opposed to trendily.^

But bear in mind this book was written 100 years ago, is unashamedly patriotic / eurocentric and makes no apologies for mixing in myth with actual history!

Agree with mycomment re ?Our Island Story?, it was recommended to me (by an American who may not have seen the problems with it) ? rather imperialistic view of things and although it makes a good read it is really just myths and legends mixed with a Victorian romanticised view of history (for example ? chapters on King Arthur and the round table).

EH Gombrich's A Little History of the World is very good. Not illustrated though as far as I know. But it is aimed at children, short chapters about world history, nice engaging chatty inclusive style of narrative. It is definitely more World/European in its slant than British though (I think the original is written in German)

But all history books reflect the opinions of the time in which they were written.

I was flabbergasted when I recently read an A Level text book on the Stuarts. Apparently James I, because he didn't smoke, was ahead of his time and realised the dangers of smoking. Then, because he wasn't brought up by his mother, he had had a tough life and had been the victim of bullies. Oh, and he was gay so this made him vulnerable.

The whole book could have been written by Harriet Harman. I'm sure he'll be back from the grave to sue for retrospective compensation.

We have this which has been useful. Ds is Y5 now, was in Y4 when I bought it, but I think it will be good for a few years yet.

I think it gets the balance between detail and bittiness just about right. I'm not too sure how well it works in terms of sequences of events - although the chapters are in order I guess.

Thanks, all, and ('written by H Harman'!), gramercy ! Revisionist or wot?!