Navigators - Knights and Castles product reviews

Like [[-2881^^the Killer Creatures book-"> in the navigators series, my 9 and 10year old sons really enjoyed knights and castles... but they weren't the only ones, our 18 yr old and my husband also read the book from cover to cover in one sitting.

If castles, knights, medieval times and history are your thing then this book is for you. The photos/pictures are awesome, the facts are great and the extras (websites etc) are fantastic. The book really is full of interesting facts, and I learnt so much from reading this one. I love castles too, so really enjoyed reading about the different layouts and sizes of them. I agree that the information on the shields was really intriguing, especially as I never knew these facts before, the website link to go with that also great.

My boys love swords, battles and the like so they tended to be interested in the battle and weapon pictures and information, and as I expected were off trying to carve swords after reading :)

The navigators series of books would also be perfect for school projects too.

From the front page with its illustrated Knights in armour, to the last, where there was links to sites to find out more info this book was adored by Master 9. Read from cover to cover and with the pictures of olden day weapons pored over again and again this book is a winner in our house. From a parents point of view, including a glossary with descriptions of terms that might now be familiar was excellent, instead of coming to me asking he managed to read and find himself. This would definitely be recommended for children who perhaps are no so keen readers as it contains excellent, detailed illustrations to go along with the text.
A lovely, resourceful book.

Compared to "Killer Creatures", another book from "Navigators", I think this one was not as good. It took around the same time to read as the other book, but I had to drag my way through most of it. I think the reason that I didn't find the book as good as I was hoping it to be is that Knights and Castles are not exactly my kind of thing, so you might find it better than I did.

One thing I must tell you is that one of the online links is not strictly educational, the link "www.nationalgeographic.com/castles/enter.html" doesn't give you information on castles, instead it takes you to an online game website, which was not good and has no educational value whatsoever. My favourite link in the book is one that takes you to two different websites that allow you to make your own shield/coat-of-arms; this link is "www.heraldry.ca/kids_en/heraldry_make_shield/htm".

Despite the fact that it was a bit boring, I now know more about Knights and Castles, like how shields can be divided or changed as the family grows, like the way King Richard the Lionheart's shield had three lions on it, then as time went past the shield had more and more images added to it. The pictures were great, I loved the bright colours of all the shields on pages 36-37, they really stood out and made me want to look at them.

I think "Knights & Castles" would be good for 8-15 year olds for the same reasons as "Killer Creatures", only the enjoyment level might be different. I hope you like "Knights & Castles" better than I did, but we all have different likes and dislikes, so try a copy today.