Reddit mentions: The best medieval history books for children

You can't go wrong with reading Peter Pan!

I really loved Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes, about a boy thief who is blind. A fun adventure with a twist of magic.

I LOVED The Castle in the Attic as a kid, about a boy who is gifted a toy castle with a knight inside who comes alive. I think your nephew will love it!

There's also a great series out recently, the first one is called The Search for WondLa. It's science fiction, with great illustrations to go along with the story, and really unique aliens and technology.

I think the funniest book I've ever read was a parodic fantasy: A Barrel of Laughs, A Vale of Tears by Jules Feiffer (who also illustrated The Phantom Tollbooth, another children's comic fantasy, though the focus there was more philosophy than humor). You can get through it in an hour or two if you want ideas. It took tropes and cliches that were noticeable even as a kid (of course the prince needs to save the maiden! Oh wait, that didn't work?) and was just generally irreverent with them. Solutions to problems didn't have to make sense on all levels of logic, but if you squinted right... e.g. The forest gets deeper as you walk forwards - better walk backwards to escape!

With an older audience that reads a lot of fantasy, you can probably drop a bunch of small details from books and it will probably be funny to someone (e.g. braid tugging intensifies, the only music available is Queen, etc).

If you just want to poke fun at a bunch of common tropes, TVTropes or The Fantasy Novelist's Exam might be good starting points.

Agreed on your Bella Swan point -- she's terrible. Sabriel by Garth Nix has a slightly more admirable female (though sadly, character development isn't his focus / forte, so not much to dive into there), as do the sequels). Anna of Byzantium, while perhaps a bit young, is an awesome historical female figure, as are the various heroines of Caroline Meyer, or perhaps The Queen's Own Fool by Yolen & Harris - or Dove and Sword, a novel about Joan of Arc (caveat, these may have 1-2 racy scenes -- nothing as "bad" as Twilight, but as you are a teacher, wanted to flag), or The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. -- wow I just went a tear of historical, fictionalized heroines...

John Green - I encourage Papertowns as that seemed the least form factor, but I certainly hear what you're saying. For more "unexpected" I'd refer to the Crutcher books or to Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Pessl or An Uncommon Education by Percer - the latter two having that prep school / sheltered feel to them but being unique / interesting in their own right.

Continue the good fight against Bella...

First of all, your neice is freaking adorable. I am so glad you have one another.

• Caption says: I cannot possibly smile big enough to show how happy I am to be on this playground with my auntie.
  
  
• I have two kids - Nico and Maggie. [Here we all are, last fall] (http://i.imgur.com/h8uuFwm.jpg) My favorite memory with them is not one moment. It's the feeling of being together outside on a sunny day, a day like in your picture of your neice. I just love it.
  
  
• [Nico finally loves to be read to] (http://www.amazon.com/dp/067982412X/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3OBODULZY3BS3&coliid=I20L96EY6DN0RJ). This would be more for him than Maggie, but we do all sit together when we read these.
  
  Thanks.
  
  edit: forgot to include the memory!

I should mention, this is out of a book called Bestiary: An Illuminated Alphabet of Medieval Beasts written and as far as I can tell illustrated by Jonathan Hunt, it's a wonderful book I have loved ever since I first read it as a kid. It's a thin hardcover with beautiful illustrations, and if anyone would like it is ~5 bucks on Amazon.

Edit: Off of mobile, link does indeed work.

Here's one you actually may not have heard of/considered: A Barrel of Laughs, a Vale of Tears was my favorite book when I was an ickle teense. I thought it was pretty much the funniest thing ever written.

Not sure how old I was, but I'm pretty sure I was single digits.

• Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, about an angel and demon dealing with the apocalypse when the Antichrist is accidentally raised as a perfectly normal 10-year old human.
  
• The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, which gets fairly philosophical.
  
• A Barrel of Laughs, A Vale of Tears by Jukes Feiffer, the illustrator for The Phantom Tollbooth, about a prince who makes everyone around him burst out laughing.
  
  Would also second David Sedaris' humorous essay collections.

I hope you find these interesting! My love to your niece!

http://www.amazon.com/The-Door-Wall-Marguerite-Angeli/dp/0440227798

http://www.amazon.com/My-Sisters-Keeper-Beverly-Butler/dp/0396087442

http://www.amazon.com/How-Fried-Worms-Thomas-Rockwell/dp/0440445450

http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/0545050561

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.com

amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

amazon.com.au

amazon.in

amazon.com.mx

amazon.de

amazon.it

amazon.es

amazon.com.br

amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

amazon.fr

Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

Crispin by Avi?
*edit: here's a guide to the book, probably will be more helpful than the Amazon link. he goes on an adventure across the countryside when his mother dies and he is cast from his village.

I fell in love with The Castle in the Attic when I was a kid. Your kid miiiiiight be able to read The Neverending Story, but I heartily recommend The Wizard of Oz, The Jungle Book, and Alice in Wonderland. In a year or two, give him A Wrinkle in Time. I think you can find all those latter books at Project Gutenberg.

Have you considered reading to him yourself?

The Phantom Tollbooth - I highly recommend The Time Warp Trio! I read the books as a kid, they were hilarious and

Mimus by Lilli Thal. Great YA fantasy/adventure.

A barrel of laughs, a vale of tears?

Could it be The Saga of Erik the Viking?

Even if it's not, you should add that book to your list anyway. My kids adored it.

EDIT: I just read the reviews for the one I linked to. Apparently this is a reprinted edition, without the great illustrations I remember from my children's childhood. Don't buy this one. Buy the original!

The first book I remember really loving was "The Boys King Aurther". Made me want to be a Gallant Knight and an artist.

Irony that it is a story of female Hypergamy.

Also I have noticed that there are fewer male protagonists lately. One series I just set down because it was atrocious has a daughter trying to find her father. it wasn't the female protag that made it bad, it was poorly written. if I could have identified with the protag, i might have given it a pass.

I think I found it, this may very well be the book I'm looking for: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0689812469/ref=rdr_ext_tmb


EDIT: I did! Here's the image I was talking about: https://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120104223752/warriorsofmyth/images/7/7e/Dbs_Jonathan_Hunt_Bestiary_13_Kracken.jpg

the Abarat books by Clive Barker, make sure you get the illustrated editions!

The Thirteen and a Half Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers

Crusade in Jeans by Thea Beckman One of my all time favourites, the old translated editions weren't as good but a new version will be published in november.

The Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey

Joust of Honor

The Cure

http://www.amazon.com/The-Cure-Sonia-Levitin/dp/038073298X

Could it perhaps be The Gideon trilogy?

For me, nothing can beat the childhood experience of reading Jonathan Hunt's lavishly illustrated Bestiary, full of unusual and semi-forgotten medieval monsters.

https://www.amazon.com/Bestiary-Illuminated-Alphabet-Medieval-Beasts/dp/0689812469

I think this may have been the one I read as a kid; "Bestiary: An Illuminated Alphabet of Medieval Beasts", by Jonathan Hunt

Here are some links for the product in the above comment for different countries:

Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/067982412X/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3OBODULZY3BS3&coliid=I20L96EY6DN0RJ


|Country|Link|
|:-----------|:------------|
|UK|amazon.co.uk|
|Spain|amazon.es|
|France|amazon.fr|
|Germany|amazon.de|
|Japan|amazon.co.jp|
|Canada|amazon.ca|
|Italy|amazon.it|
|China|amazon.cn|



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The Time Travelers (The Gideon Trilogy, Book 1)

https://www.amazon.com/Time-Travelers-Gideon-Trilogy-Book/dp/1416915265/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009VNM8SE/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

The Castle in The Attic by Elizabeth Winthrop?

The Time Travelers?

When was high school?

Could it be Mimus?

The Gideon Trilogy

http://www.amazon.com/Time-Travelers-Gideon-Trilogy-Book/dp/1416915265

The third book really sucks.