I bought "Ten Horrible Histories" from a book club we run at school. They cost me £10 for the set which was an excellent bargain. They are marked at £4.99 each.
The books are paperback with approximately 127/130 pages in each. They are easy and interesting to read for young children with a reading age of about eight. Boys of this age especially, sometimes find reading boring just as the author states that history can be boring.
All of the books have a contents and introduction page.
The books are interesting and very cleverly written. If a child finds reading a page of text difficult they can read the comic strip or the jokes and an adult could share the book with them by reading the text. There are quizzes and in some books questions to ask the teacher, so the teacher must read the book too!
There are rhyme words, lists, comic strips, jokes, poems and letters; although I have not checked I would imagine many a technique for encouraging the young to read.
The blurb states 'History with the nasty bits left in! They most certainly do have those nasty bits left in but the books are written in such a way that they come across as unbelievable or humorous.
The introduction page is in simple language mainly telling the reader that history can be boring at school or history can be horrible, they tempt the child to read because it makes the child think they will learn something that their teachers or adults will not tell them, which is possibly true as most history is generally taught without humour or trivia.
I personally do not have a favourite book as they are all so engaging although I do have favourite times in history as I think most of us do. See if you can guess my favourite times…
The Awesome Egyptians by Terry Deary and Peter Hepplewhite
With a picture of a mummy on the front and an explorer exclaiming 'I want my mummy!' it is an instant smile for young children. The book encourages the young reader by offering short text and some comic strip; it tells the reader that teachers do not know everything (which of course is true or not true - depending on the teacher!).
The book begins with the Pharaohs and apart from imparting information it also asks questions such as 'Could you have been an Egyptian King?' Then the reader will find four answers to select from. The correct answer is at the bottom of the page - Could you have been an Egyptian King? You will have to read the book!
The book discusses Tutankhamun and how to build a pyramid (with 80, 0000 friends)
There are Egyptian games for the children to make and instructions to make a canopic jar - oh my golly... I have three canopic jars - I wondered how I would ever replace the one I left on the Nile! Now I know which son of Horus I lost - it was Imsety the one who guards the liver - I now have the instructions of how to make a new one…
The Ruthless Romans - Terry Deary
Here we have a bloodied leg, a roaring lion and a Roman soldier with his sword, the soldier is saying 'Nice Kitty! This book tells you about the gory gladiators.
Some tasty foul
facts to tell the visiting aunty while sitting at the
dinner table… just what children love - the shock factor. Did you know there were female gladiators? The men were shocked at the idea so women were banned but it was still okay to throw the women to the lions..
The Angry Aztecs - Terry Deary
The section on eating like an Aztec is enough for children and adult's stomach's to turn inside out! How about lake scum made into cakes? This book gives an interesting insight.
The book discusses the Maya and Aztecs, I really only learnt about the Mayan and Aztec civilisation through Art and this was certainly not in Primary School - this is a problem today with the school curriculum being forever squeezed tighter and tighter only a handful of history is taught to children in the Primary school but that is another debate because it is the Education Department who decides what history should be taught... so another reason to buy these wonderful books.
The Stormin' Normans - Terry Deary
This is another fun book full of facts about 'Big Bad Bill the Conqueror' The Battle of Hastings and the Crusades, full of quizzes and scary tales all set in an amusing way of course!
With a wonderful section on Norman children not going to school or having to tidy their rooms there is a list of what they would have to do as soon as they could walk. Little jobs like prodding oxen in the bum with a stick to make them plough the field - much better than learning to
read and write I suppose.
The Terrible Tudors - Terry Deary and Neil Tonge
Henry V111 with an interesting section on the good wife guide with symbols as a key. This is an excellent way to help children remember the various Kings and Queens with wonderful Tudor limericks to remember for fun. This is much more engaging than in my school days when we had to learn dates by rote.
My favourite drawing in the book is of the Tudors throwing their waste out of the windows shouting to people to duck. When I tell this part of history and show this picture to the children they fall about laughing with a loud 'Urgh!'
A chapter of comparing Tudor Schools to schools today tells the children they are not allowed to bring a dagger or any other weapons including sticks and bats although they were allowed to take their meat knife - Well there is a surprise at least the children
ate meat if they went to school and not some shrivelled minced up animal bits and pieces coated in some nasty preservative laden wheat breadcrumbs like they do today.
Boys with
long hair beware - a basin would be put over your head and your hair chopped off - not to worry though as your friends would not see you for ten days while you had time to sit in jail to think about it.
Yes, I say that is the way to learn with a giggle and a laugh as well as remembering what is being taught.
Even more Terrible Tudors Terry Deary
This book begins with Henry Tudor (V11) and has the same lively stories and snippets as the previous Tudor book. As always it brings the history to the school child by telling them that in Elizabethan times Mathematics was considered an art which was part of witchcraft a good excuse for not doing homework!
There are links with
nursery rhymes like sing a song of sixpence where the birds fly out the pie - a recipe often made for banquets, real birds were put inside a pie so when the pie was cut it was amusing for the guests
to see the birds fly around the hall. There would be a smaller pie inside so the guests could eat.
Children love talking about toilets so with a big yuck they can read about what Elizabethan's used for
toilet roll and why they moved to their different palaces so often and also the first flushing toilet.
The Barmy British Empire - Terry Deary
This book begins with a timeline about the buying of slaves from
Africa. It gives a good introduction to this sad subject showing what terrible times the slaves had to endure.
To balance the book of course there are heroes of the British Empire trying to stop African slavery. The book discusses Britain and the Empire and how the world changed.
The Slimy Stuarts - Terry Deary
There is a good slimy timeline to begin with and a comic strip at the side with the main facts. I particularly like the section on eating and good
table manners -Think of this one when you are out partying or at a buffet -
'If you wish to be polite at the dinner table…'
'Dip your food into the common salt dish before you eat it but not after you have taken a bite from it'
I think some people today should think of this with party dips - think about how many times you have avoided the dip because someone has bitten their food then dunked it in the dip again. (Or maybe you just have not noticed - until now…) Urgh!
Another good one is not to bring the cat to the dinner table.
Now this is a good one as cats invariably like to join in, I have a small tin with buttons in it and when my cat came near the food table I used to shake it gently and the cat ran a mile now she is conditioned I only have to show the cat the tin and she runs.
Every rule is polite so this part not so slimy! - A very good set of rules for children of today (and some adults too!)
There is a lovely recipe for Gingerbread for the Gingerbread Fairs
Of course this period is the time of the Great Fire of London, the plague and Cromwell. It is packed with snippets and lovely drawings and jokes.The Villainous Victorians - Terry Deary
This book discusses the divide of life, the rich and the poor, Newgate and a day off while the criminals were hung. Transportation and all the awful facts of Victorian life. Children tend to enjoy this era in school because we still have artefacts they can handle in the classroom. There is a twenty year timeline of famous people and a timeline of the forgotten and failed!
In some of the books in this set, Terry Deary gives the language of the day. In this book there is a short Victorian phase book list of words which is not just set out as a boring list but also with speech bubbles as well which make it humorous for the children... To end the book we have the top ten Villainous Victorians! (What lovely phrases to roll of the tongue for reading!)
The Blitzed Brits - Terry Deary
Once again we have a timeline which begins in 1923 referring to the beginning of the Nazi party this leads us up to1945.
There are questions about how to beat the Blitz and what would you do?
School rules and the good news that many schools were closed "So, many pupils escaped the terrors of teachers' of course the bad news as well that in 1944 everyone had to go to Secondary School.
Blackouts and how black cows were painted with white lines in case they went in the road! Gas masks for people as well as dogs.
Evacuation and what that meant for children and families.
This book answers many questions.
Overall these books were a bargain for me. They help me in the classroom, they especially remind me about how to make a lesson interesting and of course the main aim is to help children learn about history (as well as learning to read)
There are more books in the series, The Cut Throat Celts, The Frightful First World War, to name but two.
I have not read these but if they are like my set then they are well worth a read.
All the books in the set are easy and fun to read and a must for the children's book shelf. If as an adult you find history books boring may I suggest you read them to a child or just read them yourself - you will probably have a juvenile chuckle but hey that's not too bad what else do we have to chuckle about in these days of our history!
First published by Scholastic
I bought mine from The Book People Ltd
The Slimy Stuarts ISBN 0 439 95435 5
The Awesome Egyptians ISBN O 439 95433 9
The Stormin' Normans ISBN 0 439 95436 3
The Villainous Victorians ISBN 0 439 95438 x
The Barmy British Empire ISBN 0 439 95429 0
The Blitzed Brits ISBN 0 439 95434 7
The Ruthless Romans ISBN 0 439 95431 2
The Terrible Tudors ISBN 0 439 95437 1
The Angry Aztecs ISBN 0 439 95432 0
Even More Terrible Tudors ISBN 0 439 95430 4
I have also seen these in my local library.
Teacherofhooch
History Deary not Dreary. 
