Living History. San Diego: Reference Point Press, 2015. 96p. 12-Book set $347.40. Individual Titles $28.95. Gr. 6-12.

Kallen, Stuart A. Life During the Crusades. 978-1-60152-720-2.

Nardo, Don. Life in Ancient Egypt. 978-1-60152-638-0.

Woog, Adam. Life During the Spanish Inquisition. 978-1-60152-722-6.

Reference Point Press continues its Living History series with three new titles.  Unlike other topical history series, Living History focuses not only on the historic period, but also on the daily life of those living through the period.  Each text provides a timeline, chapters that divide each event into more manageable topics, source notes, and a section, “For Further Reading”, that provides students with additional books and websites for research.  Intertwined with each chapter are primary sources, artwork, and “Word in Context”, a section highlighting terms specific to the time period covered.  This series is a great addition for world history research or comparative research between historic periods and today.

History (900s)    Erin Parkinson, Lincoln JSHS, Ellwood City

This year one of our English 10 teachers and I began collaborating on independent reading projects.  Each project focuses on a different aspect of literature.  For our third quarter project we focused on historical fiction and accuracy.  Students completed reading discussions with classmates, and then they wrote an essay explaining how their novel was historically accurate, inaccurate, and why the author chose to have accuracies and inaccuracies in the novel.  In order to do this, students had to find one informational text in the library to use as a basis for their argument.  The Living History series came in handy for students with this assignment because not only does this series highlight events and time periods, but it also provides primary source references which helped students better understand their historical fiction novels.