To Kill a Queen by Valerie Wilding

 Sometime ago I purchased a set of My Story books by Scholastic for the grandkids. The set is the U.K. series. To Kill a Queen by Valerie Wilding is An Elizabethan Girl's Diary and covers the conflict between Queen Elizabeth I and her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots - 1583-1586. The book is written from a young girl's  point of view who learns much of what is happening at the English court through her father and other relatives who work in the Tower of London. One thing I learned about Elizabethan life is that girls wore pattens - a wooden sole that was tied to their more delicate shoes and worn outside to avoid mud and other foul things thrown onto the streets. Unfortunately, this was a barbaric time and hangings and torture were often a public event - it's  always a good idea to read a book for content before passing on to children.

My Story - Roman Invasion by Jim Eldridge

The Scholastic My Story collection is a great way to introduce children to historical events. They are viewed through the eyes of a child. I recently purchased a My Story set for my grandchildren, but find them just as enjoyable as they do.
Roman Invasion by Jim Eldridge covers the Roman occupation of Britain during AD 84 when a young British boy, a prince of the Carvetii tribe, is captured and observes the Romans building a road across Britain. (the Stanegate Road), with great engineering expertise, while they held off attacks by the Brigante tribes. The road was built for ease of the Roman army to march and set up attacks in an attempt to capture the north of England. Forts were built within a days march of each other (about 13 miles) to ensure soldiers had somewhere to rest. Hadrians Wall  was later built parallel to the road. The Roman army consisted of not only Romans but those they had captured given the choice of joining the army or death. Many of England's main roads are built on the remnants of the Roman roads and many more are being discovered using Lidar data The Romans also left behind written details of Celtic tribes that existed in England during the occupation. The first invasion by Julius Caesar was 55 BC and invasions and occupation continued until the end of Roman rule around AD 435.

My Story

Mill Girl by Sue Reid

Mill Girl by Sue Reid is part of the My Story collection of children's young reader books.

A Victorian Girl's Diary
1842 - 1843
In Spring 1842 Eliza is shocked when she is sent to work in the Manchester cotton mills - the noisy suffocating mills. The work is backbreaking and dangerous and when she sees friends' lives wrecked by poverty, sickness and unrest, Eliza realizes she must fight to escape the fate of a mill girl.

Set in Manchester, England, Mill Girl gives an account of life for children as young as 9 working in spinning mills inhaling fluff from the thread and working beneath machines where they were dangerously close to heavy machinery constantly moving. Unrest among the workers in appalling conditions prompted many to join a Chartist Movement. Cheap cotton material was in demand and with the invention of James Hargreaves' Spinning Jenny workers could spin as much as 8 people could in their homes. Other inventions brought about the Industrial Revolution.