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Our Island Story Review

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.

Our Island Story Overview

Our Island Story is the "history" of England up to Queen Victoria's Death. Marshall used these stories to tell her children about their homeland, Great Britain. To add to the excitement, she mixed in a bit of myth as well as a few legends.

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Customer Reviews

Good overall, but two serious flaws - J. Heath -
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.

Disappointed with Quality - Cynthia J. Carlson - Wasilla, AK
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.

Illustrations are in black and white - Nicole Bennett -
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.

Publishing Not Up To Par For Wilder Publications Version - Rose Bloom - Lancaster, PA USA
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. [...]

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Aug 30, 2010 14:22:05

Children's Books

Monday, August 30, 2010