Castle Diary: The Journal of Tobias Burgess

Rating:
Summary: A GREAT READ
Review: An extremely descriptive book, both in text and illustrations. Each page is riddled with short passages (by day) and small illustrations to follow most passages. The text is exploding with vocabulary used by the people of the year 1285 (The Dark Ages). The illustrations are very detailed and descriptive. There are many double page illustrations that add a lot to the book. The detail, color, and facial expressions used in the illustrations catch an observer's eye and force their eyes to wander throughout the illustration to acquire all the information it has to give. Illustrations include the layout of the castle, as well as the inside of many rooms. The text is broken up into easy to read and find sections and a glossary and index is included to aid the reader. At the end is a great section titled "Toby's World". This is a small section that goes into good detail about weapons, armor, houses, castles, and titles of the day. An informative short novel that could be enjoyed by children age 9 to 99. It can be used as a reference, an enjoyable reader, or as an addition to a Dark Ages discussion or curriculum.

Rating:
Summary: I really enjoyed this book
Review: An extremely descriptive book, both in text and illustrations. Each page is riddled with short passages (by day) and small illustrations to follow most passages. The text is exploding with vocabulary used by the people of the year 1285 (The Dark Ages). The illustrations are very detailed and descriptive. There are many double page illustrations that add a lot to the book. The detail, color, and facial expressions used in the illustrations catch an observer's eye and force their eyes to wander throughout the illustration to acquire all the information it has to give. Illustrations include the layout of the castle, as well as the inside of many rooms. The text is broken up into easy to read and find sections and a glossary and index is included to aid the reader. At the end is a great section titled "Toby's World". This is a small section that goes into good detail about weapons, armor, houses, castles, and titles of the day. An informative short novel that could be enjoyed by children age 9 to 99. It can be used as a reference, an enjoyable reader, or as an addition to a Dark Ages discussion or curriculum.

Rating:
Summary: A GREAT READ
Review: Castle Diary is a wonderful book about the Middle Ages. It is the diary of a young boy, Tobias Burgess, who spends a year as a page in a castle. He hopes to later become a knight. Tobias has many fun adventures and enjoys the castle life. He gets to ride in a hunt and discovers a poacher near the castle. He is always getting into trouble, as he is not used to the castle rules. His punishments are very harsh. Tobias always keeps up with his journal, because he always wants to remember his experience. I loved this book because I learned so much about the Middle Ages, and the illustrations were absolutely wonderful!

Rating:
Summary: Great for Classical Education
Review: It's always a challenge to find elementary-level quality literature for earlier time periods, but this was perfect. The illustrations in this hardback edition are wonderful. My kids couldn't wait to read it each day. I recommend it highly to homeschoolers.

Rating:
Summary: Great for Classical Education
Review: It's always a challenge to find elementary-level quality literature for earlier time periods, but this was perfect. The illustrations in this hardback edition are wonderful. My kids couldn't wait to read it each day. I recommend it highly to homeschoolers.