Customer Reviews

Our Island Story: A History of Britain for Boys and Girls

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a such a fun history of England. My children love reading this book. We read a couple of chapters aloud each week. We have just started our second time through.

The chapters are relatively short. For the most part, the book is organized chronologically by King (or Queen). Each chapter (or sometimes several chapters) hits the high points of each King or Queen's reign.

Make history come alive for your children by reading this book to them.

This is a nice softcover edition. Check out the publishers other books. You can pretty much assume it is going to be interesting to your children if they have published it. I have several of their books and every one has been a hit with our family.

I purchased this version for a history living book as part of the Ambleside Online curriculum. This book spans several years and I plan to read it with three children so, all things being equal, I decided to buy the least expensive, unabridged version, figuring that bare bones would be fine as long as the content was there.
Sadly, I have not been impressed with this Wilder Publications version. It does appear to be unabridged, but the font is small, the lines are close together (explains the difference in number of pages between this and other versions), and the type is faint and thus hard to read. There is no table of contents, the chapters are not numbered, and each chapter begins a few scant lines after the end of the preceding one. This may reduce the page count, but it is definitely not reader-friendly if you are trying to find a specific chapter or lost your place in reading. In addition, the proofing was poor, as I have found several typos in the few chapters we've read so far. I expected to hand this book over to my 8-year-old to read on his own, but the mistakes could influence his understanding of the material, which, by the way, is outstanding.
All in all, I'd recommend spending a few extra bucks to buy an edition that was published with higher standards. [...]

I read this aloud last spring to my 3 boys, ages 10, 12, and 13. They all really enjoyed it and I enjoyed reading it.
The only (small) negative I could give it is that there are several spelling mistakes-mostly a missing letter in a word. I corrected that as we went along for the next time I read it aloud. It really wasn't a problem but I just thought I should point that out.
We are now reading the sequel about our own country (America) called "This Country of Ours" and enjoying that one as well. I can highly recommend both books, as well as "Fifty Famous Stories Retold" which is usually bought along with these two. That one is especially easy to narrate from as the stories are very short-often just 2 pages.

We have been reading about one a week for over a year. My girls love these stories! One of our rabbits ended up with the name "Boudacia" after we read her story.
At the beginning they might be more folklore than fact, but none the less they are wonderful. There are some great moral lessons to be learned from many of the stories.
After I bought the Yesterday's Classics I found an old hardback with great color pictures. It cost a bit, but what a treasure!
Highly recommend.

Just so you know, in the Yesterday's Classics edition, the illustrations are not in color. I thought it wouldn't matter, but after I received the book I saw the illustrations in color online and they are sooo much more lovely! I'm returning this one for an edition with color illustrations (the one from Phoenix Press).

Aside from this, the YC edition is fine -- nice font size, easy to read.

I am using this book with multiple ages of elementary -level kids in my homeschool. We like it overall, and will continue to use it because it is a unique kind of history book, with alot of information presented in story form rather than dry textbook-style. But this book does have 2 serious flaws.

First, we bought the Wilder edition, which lacks any chapter numbers of any kind. Small typeface, numerous typos, no pictures. This is a wretched edition. I am reading this aloud to my kids, but if they were reading it themselves, I would have rejected this and bought the Yesterday's Classics edition.

Second, I hoped we wouldn't but unfortunately we have stumbled upon some anti-Catholic bias. The most glaring so far is the chapter on Edward the Confessor, which presents him almost entirely unlikeable and different from any accurate history of King Edward-- SAINT Edward, may I add, and sainthood is not granted capriciously--that I have read. Sadly, I will have to research the rest of the topics in this book on my own so that I will be armed with facts, and will no longer be able to blindly trust H.E. Marshall's text. I like aspects of it enough to continue using it, but not without some serious fact-checking first.

I cannot say enough good things about this history book. I am a home-educating mother of two rambunctious boys. They are not the types to sit still for anything. They'd rather be running around doing something. When it comes to history they make an exception. And it's all thanks to this beautifully written book. "Our Island Story" is history as it should be... exciting, thrilling, gripping, edge-of-your-seat storytelling that leaves you eager for the next chapter. Ever memorable, these stories stick with my children, as they retell their history lessons to family and friends, or act them out in their free time. They cheer when I tell them it's time for history, and they beg to hear more, even on their days off. ("I know it's Sunday, but can we pleeeease do history?") There are almost no "dry facts" in this book. You won't find many dates mentioned, and no uninteresting events. Everything is told with a purpose.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to have their children actually remember and enjoy history.

I found Our Island Story published by Wilder Publications to be poor quality. There is no table of contents, the chapters are not numbered, and there are no page breaks between chapters. Some chapter headings are the last line on a page while the chapter content starts on the next page. It also is missing chapters 111-114 of the original book. It is not what I consider professionally done. I try to be frugal in my book buying, but I would recommend spending the money for a higher quality book. It will save you frustration in the long run.

I first read this book in 1956 when I won the book, being the prize for the Churchill elocution competition at my school. The competition was named after Winston Churchill. Being a new competition at the school, the school headmaster sent the book to the great man asking him for permission to name the prize after him and, with great temerity, asked him if he would sign the book. He did and I have it and read it still from time to time.

It is a wonderful and easy read.

Our family was introduced to the writings of H.E. Marshall via the Ambleside Online homeschooling curriculum.
H.E. Marshall's narrative style of writing is comparative to the late headmaster of Calvert School, V.M. Hillyer who penned "A Child's History of the World, A Child's Geography of the World and A Child's History of Art."
In "Our Island Story" Marshall retells the history of Britain in a narrative story format beginning with the legend of "Albion and Brutus" and ending with "Queen Victoria's Reign." The book has beautiful artwork by A.S. Forrest sprinkled throughout which enhances the story. Our child's favorite stories are "The Coming of Hengist and Horsa", "The Coming of Arthur", "The Founding of the Round Table", "How King Alfred Learned to Read", and "King Alfred in the Cowherd's Cottage." After reading the stories of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table our child requested "The Sword in the Stone" by T.H. White for our read aloud time.
H.E. Marshall has written several other books which are an excellant follow up to "Our Island Story" including "Our Empire Story", "Scotland's Story" and "This Country of Ours."