Read Medieval

With our theme for the school holidays being Medieval Madness, I thought I should get my act together and recommend a couple of books, so you can get into the swing of things.

So you want to be a Knight? Then How to be a medieval knight (Fiona MacDonald, illustrator Mark Bergin) is for you. For ages 7 - 11, it is "packed with facts" about all the things you need to know including training, jousting, battles and seiges. For a slightly more comic and off-putting take on being a knight, Fiona MacDonald has also written Avoid being a medieval knight!

If you weren't a knight or a princess, then life in the Middle Ages might not have been so much fun. Everyday Life in Medieval Europe can shed some light on life where you didn't have to wash much (but you did smell), there wasn't a huge variety of food (and it didn't keep very long) and medicine was not very advanced (so don't get sick).

Castles were magnificent works of architecture and the library has plenty of books to take you inside the building of them, and what life was like inside.

For stories set in the Middle Ages, try Castle Diary: the the journal of Tobias Burgess, page (Richard Platt) or Dragon : hound of honor (Julie Andrews Edwards & Emma Walton Hamilton). Or you could read about the Real Life Princesses such as Elizabeth I, Eleanor of Aquitane or Kristina the Girl King in The Royal Diaries series.

And of course there were plenty of Dragons