Carole P. Roman’s Assorted Series – Review

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

If you’ve been reading here for any length of time, then you might have noticed that we love history. We love to dig into the culture of the times and find out what made it unique and the people tick. That means learning about the everyday bits of life like what people ate and wore. Face it, those are big-deal things to everyone, at least to some extent, and knowing that kind of information helps us to understand people.

That’s why I was super excited for the opportunity to review some books in Carole P. Roman’s assorted series, because not only do we love history, but we love books, too, and these books do a fantastic job of combining the two.

If You Were Me and Lived In … SCOTLAND is part of the Child’s Introduction to Cultures Around the World series. These books are written for elementary kids who might just be starting to learn about other places. What makes them great is that instead of sharing from a formal standpoint, the book tells what your life might be like if you were a kid living in Scotland today – and then Roman goes on to compare the things that might be important to kids. She talks about naming customs, food, family, entertainment, landmarks, and more in really fun, approachable ways. Potentially new words are spelled out phonetically, and those words are all listed again in the back of the book with short definitions.

I really like the illustrations in this book. With backgrounds that seem almost like photographs but simple, brightly-colored drawings layered on top, the pictures are approachable but informative. There’s a lot to look at, and I like that.

This is a great way to kick off a unit about Scotland with your kids or students. You can touch on a lot of information in a short amount of time and then easily go deeper or broader afterwards. I chose this particular book (even though my kids are much older) because it looked like a great introduction to Scotland, where my sister was traveling, and we used this to learn a great deal about what she was experiencing on her trip. We enjoyed laying the foundation of our study with this book and doing more research about what we encountered here.

(PS – Currently this book is FREE with Kindle Unlimited!)

Jumping backward in time, If You Were Me and Lived In … Elizabethan England is for much older kids. There are many more words on a page, and while the same kind of information is discussed, this book contains more information and more details than the Scotland book. That makes sense, as it’s clearly aimed at older kids, and I love the way that this one is done.

You can see that the words are smaller and the text more involved on this page. I really like these illustrations, as well, as they’re very detailed, again with a lot to study. This book includes short biographies of important people in the Elizabethan era in the back, in addition to the more extensive glossary. This book is a perfect addition to a study of Shakespeare!

We recently studied the Vikings, so I was excited for the opportunity to read If You Were Me and Lived in … Viking Europe with my kids. Like the other books above, this story is written as if you were there, moving into Viking times, and it contains lots of great but basic information about everyday life. It, too, would make a great foundation for a Viking unit, and unlike much of what we encountered during our initial study, everything in the book is very family-friendly.

In this series, the book starts out by showing you what your own life might look like before moving back in time to the Viking era. The illustrations for this series a completely different style from the two above – they’re done in a sort of wash, with lots of white spaces. I must admit, I don’t like this style; if a book is going to have pictures, I want to see lots of details that I can study and learn from, but this feels like a watercolor impressionistic painting (if there is such a thing). It’s just not my thing, and the white spaces bother me. There aren’t as many white spaces on some pages, and that’s just my opinion. What kind of illustrations do you like to see in books?

Like the Elizabethan England book, the information is much more in-depth here. It’s intended for older kids and would make a great addition to any Viking unit.

If You Were Me and Lived in … the Middle Ages could totally vie for my favorite Carole P. Roman book. I love this time period and studied it extensively in college. It was fun to see names like Hildegard of Bingen in the book and to know that kids can be learning about such important historical figures in such a fun way!

Unfortunately to me, the illustrations are the same style as in the Viking book described again – there’s too much white space and washed out color for me! I do love how much information is on each page, though – look at that text! This book is definitely for older kids but would be a great addition for any unit about the time period. In addition, there are several pages of important people from the time and a nice glossary in the back.

Want to see more Carole P. Roman books reviewed? Check out this post!

These are the kinds of books that I’m never able to keep to use formally for school with my kids. When they spot them, they read them! They love the combination of fun, historical information organized in picture book format that makes it super accessible to kids, and they wont’ wait for whatever organized lesson I have planned – their nose is between the pages as soon as they can get their hands on them.

We love Carole P. Roman books and the way that they encourage comfortable learning. With several series out, lots of awards won, and a wide variety of both historical time periods and geographic locations covered, there’s really something for anything you’re studying – but don’t take my word for it. Go here to find out what other people on the Homeschool Review Crew are saying.