Review: Carole P. Roman Assorted Series

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review.  I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.   I was first introduced to Carole P. Roman a few years ago. We were blessed to get to review books in 2017 &  2018. Carol has written over 50 books, received numerous awards for those books and been interview by Forbes Magazine Twice.  She is also one of the founders of the magazine, Indie Author's Monthly and hosts the Indie Author's Roundtable, a blog radio program. We have fallen in love with these books over the years.  There are so many reasons as to why, but a few are the beautiful and eye catching illustrations as well as the thoughtful and well written content.  When I saw that the Carole P. Roman's assorted series was up for review again I knew that Issac and I needed to add to our collection :) I personally love these books because they aren't too long and make it hard to keep your child's attention, but they learn so much just from the quick read.  My son also responds really well when he can connect with the information. By giving him examples of names, places, foods, etc. it brings the information a little closer to home for him.

      

IF YOU WERE ME AND LIVED IN...ISRAEL is the first book that Issac chose to read.  Issac though he would like to shop in the shouk, the open-air market, and see how that compares to our stores.  We have talked about the Dead Sea before, but somehow in reading this book it came much more alive for him and he was amazed that there was nothing live in it. He's heard of falafel from a kid's show he's watched as well as Shwarma from a cooking show. He thought he'd enjoy the shwarma rather than the falafel.  He and his father love pistachios and he didn't realize they were grown in Israel. He enjoyed learning about why people wrote from the right side, but it made sense to him because he's a lefty and has smeared his papers before. 

If You Were Me and Lived in...Ancient China is where we headed next in our reading adventure. We leanred about the Han dynasty and that it was one of the longest at over 400 years.  Issac found it fascinating that siblings really didn't call each other by name. They referred to each other as "younger brother", "older brother", "first" or "second" sister.  When you live in an "important" family you were well cared for and protected. If not then life could be very hard and unsafe. Most housing designs were very common, but the size was the difference that showed the economic levels. Issac loves to wear his hair short and couldn't believe it when we read that in China short hair was a sign of punishment.  Farming was considered highly important because otherwise people wouldn't survive. It seems to have really turned away from that in our time. We both thought it was so interesting about how important numbers were as well as how colors were picked based on importance. 

IF YOU WERE ME AND LIVED IN...HUNGARY was one of the books I was most interested in reading. I've only known one person, or at least that I know of, that is from Hungary and I really enjoyed hearing his stories when I was younger.  Right away the names seemed to jump out at both of us. Attila, Laszlo, Judit and Erzse'bet aren't your everyday names.  We learned that the largest lake in central Europe is the Balaton.  It's name means swamp, but it's a family favorite. The Caves of Aggtelek is another great place and has over 712 caves filled with stalagmites. Issac's only seen them in pictures, but though that would be a really cool vacation. The favorite sport of Hungary is water polo. Issac has never known anyone to participate in this sport and he thought it might be a hard sport to play. Maybe Issac's favorite part of this book is learning that the Rubik's Cube was created in Hungary.  Professor Erno Rubik invented the Rubik's Cube in 1974. I thought that was kind of cool because that was a year after I was born :) That will be a fact I never forget. 

Finally we read If You Were Me and Lived in...the Ancient Mali Empire.  One of the first interesting facts we learned was that in the Mandinka language Mali means hippopotamus.  Niani is the capital and includes an important road that leads to Mecca. Issac immediately remembered reading about Mecca and all those that travel there.  Two of the best resources in Mali were gold and salt.  Issac noticed that like in some of the other books we read that farming was the most respected job. Without stores to run to people had to depend on the farmers to eat.  Issac was shocked to hear that between 12-13 girls were thought to be ready to get married and have children.  He will be 13 in May and said he couldn't imagine getting married and having children now. Men dressed in a boubou which is a full length tunic.  They also wore baggy pants and the bigger the pants the greater the man's wealth.  Women wore wraparound skirts called pagne as well as a matching tunic and headdress.  We read that when a family member passes away only the men could go to the cemetery if the person was Muslim. We talked about how sad that would be for us if Issac could attend a funeral, but I could not. 

We have really enjoyed reading Carole P. Roman's assorted series over these last few weeks.  Carole P. Roman  has done an amazing job writing books that let children travel the world in their mind. They are full of adventure, fun facts and are beautifully illustrated.  They are books that easily capture a chil'sd eye as well as keep their mind entertained.  We have used these books in several different ways. We have used them as starting points to study a place that we didn't know much about.  We have used them as readers to add to a history program we were already doing. Probably our favorite way is to use them just as fun books and read them during lunch or at night before my son went to bed. There is no wrong way to use these books. The more you or your child reads these books the more they'll pick up on the information. They are a learning tool that never stops.  I highly recommend these books to anyone with children or grandchildren.   FACEBOOK TWITTER INSTAGRAM YOUTUBE Follow Carole P. Roman on social media for updates as well as check out what my fellow crew members thought and see which books they chose.