H is for Horrible Histories

I remem­ber sit­ting in school learn­ing about his­tory and it would be all dates, pol­i­tics and lots and lots of yawn­ing. I’ve always loved learn­ing about the past but school made his­tory dead.

How I wish Hor­ri­ble His­to­ries books were about back then!

My sons bring them home from school and I bor­row them. Actu­ally, I put in requests for them to bring them home for me!!

When you want to read about the past, it’s the juicy bits that get your atten­tion. Nobody really wants to read about peace treaties and times when every­thing was hunky-dory. That’s just bor­ing. Luck­ily the Hor­ri­ble His­tory series has all the grue­some, gory sto­ries of the past — the bits you wanted to know but your His­tory teacher was too afraid to tell.

The author, Terry Deary, sprin­kles the pages with bad jokes and illus­tra­tions. That part really isn’t me but my kids love it. They’ve enjoyed their intro­duc­tion into his­tory and hope­fully they’ll want to learn more. As an adult I can’t resist read­ing the books — the Ter­ri­ble Tudors and Witches (of course) were my favorites. I’d like to get my hands on the Angry Aztecs next.

If you’ve always thought his­tory was bor­ing then pick up a Hor­ri­ble His­tory book. Pre­tend it’s for your kids if the librar­ian is giv­ing you strange looks. It’s his­tory how it should be 😉