Historical Fiction For Ancient Rome Study

I've been a lover of historical fiction for as long as I can remember. Some of my earliest memories were falling in love with novels set in the days of pioneers. So much of my current knowledge base about history has been extracted from these carefully woven stories that give glimpses into the humanity of history. 

History texts can be at times mundane but "living" history through the eyes of a character is captivating and full of richness. Because of this, regardless of what time period in history or historical event we are studying I will always look to find a novel set in that space in time. 

Currently we are studying Ancient Rome and I am SO glad I stumbled upon The Roman Mysteries by Caroline Lawrence!

We are only 2 books deep but are quite enjoying them. The series follows four children who are quite diverse. Flavia (daughter of a wealthy Roman merchant), Jonathon (a jewish boy who is secretly a Christian), Nubia (an African girl rescued from slavery) and Lupus (a street orphan). The four experience deep friendships and together solve mysteries they encounter. 

You can purchase the hard copy of these books here:

Our preferred method so far has been listening to these books on Audible. I love being able to turn on the Audiobook and we can all draw or create (or lets be honest, I can tidy up the school room while we listen ;) ). Did you know that you can sign up for a free Audible trial and receive 2 FREE AUDIO books?! That's a $30 value right there! 

You can sign up for your own free trial here:

Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks

So far we have read The Thieves Of Ostia and The Secrets of Vesuvius. The first was good and introduced the characters well but we enjoyed the second book more. It also led into a science study of volcanoes and plate tectonics as well as a study on the eruption of Vesuvius. The story was great, the mystery was more interesting and I loved how they included real historical figures such as Admiral Pliny. 

I am reading these with an 8 and 10 year old and I'd say it's a pretty good age range but that there are in each book a couple of random, quick incidents that I don't feel are age appropriate and that if I was reading it out loud myself I'd probably skip over ;)

*Thieves of Ostia - a random suicide.

*The Secrets of Vesuvius - a section dealing with the possibility of a marital affair and "lovers". 

Alright and now for the BIG deal... I kept searching for ebooks and could find NOTHING in our libraries or Hoopla and even had a hard time on Amazon UNTIL today! 

I found the ENTIRE collection of 17 books for... $3.99. Say What?!

For less than a Starbucks coffee you can get 17 great books! C'mon - that's crazy. I snapped that up in a hurry and I recommend that you do as well. I'm even including the link for you to grab it yourself!

17 books feels like a lot but even if we don't read them all together I'm sure my kids will read them on their own at some point. Plus - as an adult I would love a 17 book series because it's just so much more time to spend with your favourite characters!

Cheers!

Monique