Harry's Book Reviews

Life in a Medieval Castle, by Jane Shuter

It didn't give that much information about knights. It had a lot of information about how people lived in castles. If you like castles, you should read it.

Usborne Internet-Linked First Encyclopedia of History

I read the parts about Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and Medieval Castles. There is a part about the first Olympic Games that's interesting. The parts I read were good because they gave a lot of information. But it doesn't give all of the information you want, so you should look somewhere else for more.

Eyewitness Books: Castle by Christopher Gravett

It had a whole bunch of information about castles and more information about knights than Life in a Medieval Castle. I liked the information and it has pictures about the things they were talking about in it. If they were talking about knights, they would show a knight.

Usborne Book of Castles, by Lesley Sims

It has chapters about different topics, so one chapter is called "war" and it shows what knights would do in a war. There is a lot more information in it than the Eyewitness Book of Castles. They both have the same kind of pictures though. If you were going to check one of them out of the library, you should get this one. (He's taking a quick reading break.)

Usborne Greek Myths for Young Children

It has a whole bunch of Greek myths. There is one called "The Gift of Fire' and the chief god Zeus let the people live on earth but he didn't let them have fire. So the god Prometheus stole a piece of burning charcoal from Zeus' palace. Zeus could smell the food that the people were having and he knew that Prometheus had stolen charcoal from his palace. He chained Prometheus to a mountain side and ever day an eagle tore out his liver and every night a new one grew back. He had to sit there for hundreds of years until the god Zeus forgave him.

There are lots of good drawings in this book too.

The Trojan Horse, by Warwick Hutton

The Greeks won the Trojan War by building the Trojan Horse. It's a big wooden horse that the Greeks made and the goddess Athena told Odysseus to write her name in the side. Then the Greek ships left and the Trojans thought they had won the war and they brought the Trojan horse in the city. Then they feasted and danced until they got tired and went back to their houses. When they were all tired, Odysseus and the other Greeks opened the door to the city so the other ones could get in. Then they stormed through the city and won the battle.

How to Be a Medieval Knight, by Fiona MacDonald

It has a lot of information about knights--more than any other of the castle books. It tells how the knights fought and what they used for their weapons and how they lived and practiced and became knights. There are questions in the back to answer. They are about what knights did and what to do if you were under siege. The answers are on the last page on the bottom right corner.

If you were interested in knights, this would be a good book to read.

There are other ones like this on being a Roman Soldier and a Samurai Warrior. And an Aztec Warrior.