**Please note resources mentioned in this post may have been received for free or I may have received monetary compensation to write this post. However, the reviews are my personal opinion. For more information, please see my disclosure page.*
History is an important subject to teach our children. Without the lessons of times passed how else will our children be able to change the course of the future? We must ensure our children learn about the past in order to help create a better future.
My children love history almost as much as they love reading, so anytime I can find historical fiction literature for my middle schoolers they dive right in and rarely come up for air.
I’ve found that by using historical literature (both non-fiction and fiction), my children learn and retain more than they do through textbooks and dry, boring fact memorization. After all, wouldn’t you find history more interesting through the story of someone else’s life?
Finding engaging historical literature for my middle schoolers isn’t always easy, but because my children love history I’m always looking for more!
One of my favorite homeschool resource companies is Dover Publications. I’ve shared before how both of my children loved their art instruction books and for themed studies I love their activity books. While I’ve used a lot of their resources as a homeschool mom and as a home schooled child, I had never really looked into their literature.
As year round homeschoolers our summers are filled with more relaxed learning and lots of reading. My children chose a few books from Dover Publications to read as part of their summertime homeschooling.
My son chose, “We Were There At the Battle of Gettysburg” and “We Were There At the Driving of the Golden Spike”. He truly enjoyed these books and quickly started the second one as soon as he finished the first.
My son learned that during the building of the train tracks out west that Indians not only attacked trains for their goods, but also to collect scalps. He really enjoyed watching Mike (the boy in the story), be persistent and earn the ability to help his dad.
My daughter chose the books, “We Were There At the Boston Tea Party” and “We Were There At the First Airplane Flight”. She was the first one to start reading this series and come tell me about everything she enjoyed and learned.
She also learned that the Wright brothers tested their theory on flight using kites before moving onto airplanes! It took them one year to design the airplane that finally took flight!
I love hearing my children tell me about what they’re learning throughout our homeschool journey. This is especially important that as they are independent learners and in middle school.
I’m never disappointed with the homeschool resources I get from Dover Publications and their middle school historical fiction “We Were There” series is no exception!
What are your middle schoolers favorite historical fiction books?
Misty Leask
Latest posts by Misty Leask (see all)
- Teaching History through Musicals - February 18, 2019
- The Little Mermaid Movie Study - February 15, 2019
- 5 Steps to Creating Movie Unit Studies - February 11, 2019
Thank you! We are studying Ancient History this year and have only touched on US History so this will be some great reads for my 5th and 7th graders.
Oh fun! I hope y’all enjoyed the books and your study! 🙂
I have never seen this series! I have used some Dover books when our children were little, and some of their colouring books, but didn’t realize they had much for older ones. I will have to check it out. Thanks for sharing.
I hope that you were able to find them and that you and your kids enjoyed them! 🙂 Blessings Margaret!
We are covering first flight this year. Thanks for the resource!
Oh yay! I hope you enjoyed the book and your study! 🙂
How do you find historical fiction for middle schoolers on their site? I have tried everything to find it.
I finally got this series to come up when I search
🙂
I’m glad that you were able to find them Linda! 🙂
These are really great recommendations. I hope you will join us this week at Literacy Musing Mondays. http://maryanderingcreatively.com/great-giveaways-continue/
Thank you for the invite Mary! 🙂
Thanks for the recommendation. We’re getting to the point where we’re hard-pressed to find recommendations we haven’t already read, but you gave us something new to put on our list. 🙂 Hooray!
I’m so glad that you got a few new books for your to read list! I hope y’all enjoy them! 🙂
I hadn’t heard of these! We’ve used the Dover coloring books in the past. I know they’re nice quality books. Thanks for sharing these. I bet my kids will like them, too.
I’m sure your kids would love them! My kids love the coloring books from Dover too! 🙂
One of our favorite subjects, HISTORY! I have never gotten anything from Dover Publications but have seen a lot of good stuff from there. I will keep them in mind while planning our History this year.
They do have such great homeschool resources! I hope that you were able to find helpful resources for your homeschool year!
These sound wonderful! I know my kids love the Magic Tree House books because they can walk through history with kids their own age. I can’t wait to look into these.
My stepson loved reading those books growing up! 🙂