Home
  • Home
  • Latest Issue
  • Past Issues
  • Authors & Artists
  • Articles
  • Reviews
  • News
  • Forums
  • Search

The Story of Britain

  • View
  • Rearrange

Digital version – browse, print or download

Can't see the preview?
Click here!

How to print the digital edition of Books for Keeps: click on this PDF file link - click on the printer icon in the top right of the screen to print.

BfK Newsletter

Receive the latest news & reviews direct to your inbox!

BfK No. 210 - January 2015
BfK 210 January 2015

COVER STORY
This issue’s cover illustration is from The Farm Beneath the Water by Helen Peters. Thanks to Nosy Crow for their help with this cover.

Digital Edition
By clicking here you can view, print or download the fully artworked Digital Edition of BfK 210 January 2015 .

  • PDFPDF
  • Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version
  • Send to friendSend to friend

The Story of Britain

Mick Manning and Brita Granström
(Franklin Watts)
80pp, INFORMATION BOOK, 978-1445127873, RRP £13.99, Hardcover
8-10 Junior/Middle
Buy "The Story of Britain" on Amazon

History is sometimes seen as unfashionable; difficult for the young, especially when it involves dates. Certainly there are favourite periods - Romans, Vikings and of course the Tudors - but they seem to exist in limbo and are usually studied non chronologically. How can the sweep of history be shown? Surely it is a brave author to attempt this? Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom have taken the challenge.

Aimed at top KS1 and KS2 pupils this is a brisk canter through the history of Britain to the present day. We meet Stone Age hunters, Saxons, Tudors, Hanoverians and the new Elizabethans (us). We learn about the feudal system and the Industrial Revolution. Since each subject or period is given one double spread, inevitably the information is succinct and carefully chosen. However, a particularly welcome feature is the chronological strip at the foot of each page, marching through the book from earliest period to today. This anchors each subject firmly into time. Brita Granstrom's lively illustrations filling every space left by the text and incorporating speech bubbles addressing the reader directly, ensure a friendly approach, while an index allows targeted access. A couple of small quibbles - sometimes the text is in an uncomfortably small font and it would have been nice to have been directed to further reading - perhaps Britannia (McCaughrean) - adding colour to an already colourful presentation. But Manning and Granstrom want to make history attractive and accessible for young readers and in this they have succeeded once again.

Reviewer: 
Ferelith Hordon
5
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Help/FAQ
  • My Account