Horrible Histories?

[itsonlyyearfour]

My DD1 has been given one of these as her reading book for this week. She is in Y2. I was shocked at how hard it is, not sure we are going to make it through the whole book at the end of the week. Even more shocked when I looked on here on some threads and it said it is aimed at 6 to 10 years old!

There are so many concepts that she doesn't understand! There is talk of the "Whigs and the Tories", of course all the political figures (Prime Ministers, Lords, etc), and a wide range of terminology she has never come across: things like "guillotined", "revolutions", "slave trade", "peasants", and many many more.

Are these really aimed at Y2 children? If so, mine must be massively behind :(

hiya year4. my DD2 (year 4) loves horrible histories and has learned loads of history from them. I bet she couldn't read them herself in Y2, though I can't really remember! I think I read them to her then and she has loved them ever since. How about just helping your DD by reading all the difficult words and hopefully she might pick up a bit of history on the way.
may be the teacher will give her something a bit easier next time!

Yr2 does seem young to me. It's not so much the level of the language used as the concepts, as you say. And they're not short, are they? Can you talk to the teacher and change the book?

Distinctly remember them being 8+ when looking for new books for DD last year, so gave them a miss even though she loves the tv show.

Is it possible your child was sent off to get her own reading book and teacher isn't even aware of what she's picked?

Sounds reassuring thanks to all who replied!

Like you all say I was amazed at how many concepts were there, we'll try our best to get through what we can and then I will send a note to the teacher!

That is very wired and funny hahahahah

Apologies for wierd message above.... A dc thought it would be funny to post while I was on the phone.

I agree some of the content of the books is unsuitable for this age, IMH.

My DS was obsessed with them in Y2 (very precocious in reading and history, so these books suited him really well!), but I had to hide a 'special' that someone bought him about all the gory bits from all the books. It was horrible!

It won't do her any harm to learn the terms you mentioned, OP, but it's alot to expect that you have to sit with her and read the whole thing with her so you can explain the difficult bits.

When I was teaching, I used to get my better readers to keep a list of words they didn't understand in their reading record book, then at their one-to-one reading time, we'd go through it. Would that help your DD?

look up topic you're reading in horrible histories on the net i.e. greeks, romans etc. They may explain some of the subject matter in a clear but fun way for your daughter.

Some 6/7 year old will read HH books in full and more-or-less understand it all. Many more will flick through them and only really understand a few of the cartoons and snippets of text, and still more won't be up to reading them at all. An average age of 8+ sounds about right to me to get the most out of them.

I have a DS (year 3) who is history mad, and loves Horrible Histories. I just asked him - he reckons they are aimed at 7-12 year olds. He says the gory bits are the good parts, and history doesn't make sense unless you learn about them.

I think it completely depends on your child. In year 2, the only thing he would read was a history encyclopaedia, horrible histories, and Roald Dahl.

Are you sure its her reading book and not a book she has chosen from the library?

I feel Y2 would be a bit young, unless she is really into it.

My DS is an average reader and could not read it, I have to explain the jokes too.

It was definitely her school book, we've persevered with it and finished it off, but it was a bit of a trial! I think these books are excellent, but maybe not as school reading books for my DD1 as she is expected to finish it off in a week and it is a bit too much to explain so many new concepts so quickly - for her anyway! Having said that, I think she will remember the Gorgeous Georgians for a long time to come!!

Thankfully she has a much easier book this week on the environment!!! I will definitely get these at some point in the future, maybe next year would be more appropriate though!!

Is it a reading book, or a library book?? We have HH in our library but not as reading books - I agree, they are v tricky and long.

Sorry -x-posted with others!!

Just bought the Knights' one to read to my DS (Y2) in German from Amazon (DS is bilingual).