Horrible Histories

Who would like to know what stone age people used as toilet paper? or how Romans had tools that talked? or how to pile up a pyramid?

For the answers to these and other equally fascinating questions, you need HORRIBLE HISTORIES.

Horrible Histories is a childrens magazine that focuses on the more gruesome (and interesting) points of History.

I started to buy Horrible Histories for my 7 year old son after he saw them being advertised on television and pestered me to buy him a copy.

The magazine costs £1.99 for 23 pages and is available every fortnight.

Horrible Histories is based on the best-selling books written by Terry Deary and illustrated by Martin Brown. The magazines focus on a particular time in history, with titles such as 'The Terrible Tudors', 'The Groovy Greeks' the 'Slimy Stuarts' and 'The Measly Middle Ages.'

Content
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Each magazine contains the following sections;

*Terrible Times*

This is a comic strip story telling the history of the time in a very humorous way that appeals to children but is also very informative and interesting.

*Who's Who?*

4-5 pages giving profiles and backgrounds of the main figures from the selected period of history. Includes 'poisonous profiles' and 'daft deeds'.

*Front Page News*

A single page showing a spoof front page of a newspaper from the time.

*Petrifying Places*

Double page spread picture depicting life in this time period, punctuated with interesting and gruesome facts.

*Life and Strife*

Double page spread picture showing life of the time. Also included in this section are articles on issues such as Crime, Schooling, Life and Death and 'Rotten Rules and Looney Laws'

*Awesome Activities*

This section contains a variety of activites including puzzles, wordsearches, quizes, mazes and fun tasks such as match the correct death to the person and how to make a quill pen.

Free Gifts
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Each magazine issue comes complete with 4 'Wild 'n' Wicked' cards to collect including a 'Flip 'n' Flick' card. Also included is a terrible timeline, which plots the major events and when they happened.

Every once in a while additional free gifts are available. My son has collected a metal tin to store his Horrible History cards in, a ring-bound folder to store his timeline sheets in, and a tidy box folder for the storage of the magazines.

Verdict
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Horrible Histories is a great magazine for children. It manages to be informative and educational in a fun and humurous way. The focus on gruesome and quirky facts really appeals to children. The whole design of the magazine with its comic strip stories and fun quizes is very much geared towards encouraging children to learn in a fun environment.

I read through these magazines myself and have learnt numerous interesting facts from them. My son has just started studying History at school and has really enjoyed relating what he has learnt from Horrible Histories to his school work.

Highly recommended as a fun way to teach your child some History.