Children's Books by Carole P. Roman | Review

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Carole P. Roman has a fun variety of children's books on Amazon for various ages, and we got to review four of them to share with you. I share a little about each one, but be sure to visit the Homeschool Crew blog to see book reviews on all her other books.


If You Were Me and Lived in… Egypt is a 34 page soft cover book with full-color illustrations from the Cultural series. It is written to introduce children to Egyptian culture in a friendly, personal way. Bo started reading this book on his own, but needed help with some big words, so I had Eliana who is ten read it to him. He didn't seem too engaged by the content, so I asked him questions to engage him. For example, when it says, "Your parents might name you Youseff (You-sef), Aly (Al-lee), or Mostafa (Mus-taf-ha) if you were a boy," I asked Bo which name he would like to have been named, if he lived in Egypt. (I appreciated having the pronunciation clues!) He picked Youseff for himself and then picked Deena for his sister.

The book covers physical geography of the country, historical significance, what you might eat, places you would see, how you would travel, what games you would play, what toys you would play with, and more... if you lived in Egypt.

The back of the book includes a pronunciation guide with definitions.

I also reviewed two books from the If You Were Me and Lived in… Historical series. These are very similar to the cultural series in that they also include cultural information, but they are geared towards a specific period of history.


If You Were Me and Lived in… the Middle Ages is a 97 page soft cover book with whimsical pastel colored illustrations to lure your child into the Middle Ages as if he or she lived during that time. The story, of course, follows the premise that if you lived in the Middle Ages, this is what you would see, be, or do. For example, if you lived in the Middle Ages, you would have been born more than 900 years ago, and you'd learn all about the feudal system, fiefdoms, knights and vassals, serfs and lords, and more. You'd live in the keep, roast meat in the fireplace, eat your meals on a trencher, and more.

You'll also find a list of famous people from the Middle Ages from William the Conquerer to to Charlemagne, as well as a 13 page glossary of unfamiliar words, pronunciations, and meanings in the back of this book.

If You Were Me and Lived in…Renaissance Italy is a 54 page soft cover book with a combination of cartoon style illustrations and more realistic pictures and paintings of the period. It is geared towards teaching your students what life was like in Florence, Italy, during the Renaissance. Just like with the others, your learner will read about what they ate, where they lived, what they wore, and what they did for a living or for entertainment, and more. This book also has a list of famous people and glossary of words.

I thought it was odd that the illustrations in the first 17 pages don't match the medium or quality of the illustrations in the rest of the book or the cover. Also, the black text on the dark red background was hard to read.

Though my children and I prefer historical fiction books with a narrative style, we think the If you Were Me and Lived in. . . series would be a great supplement for any literature based unit study. They cover a lot of great information with appealing illustrations and would be great for young children up to middle school.

Finally, we reviewed a small chapter book.


Oh Susannah: It's in the Bag is a 46 page chapter book written for ages 8 - 12 from the Oh Susannah early chapter books series. I had Eliana, who is ten, read it. She read it before bed in one evening and told me about it when she woke up.

"Susannah is a girl in the third grade who has troubles. One of her troubles is math and to deal with it, she stuffs it in her bag and leaves it there. Then she gets a sleep-over invitation from her best friend, Lola, but she doesn't want to go because Lola lives in an old, creepy house, and Lola's brother tells her there is a ghost haunting the house. So, she stuffs the inviation in her bag too. Then she has a dream that the bag explodes, and Susannah finally reaches out to her parents for help. I learned that it's better to address your problems and not stuff them away, but the book leaves you hanging because we don't know if she goes to the sleepover or not." - Eliana, age 10

Perhaps that is in the next book?

I read the book myself and thought Eliana had written a good synopsis of the book. Susannah does stuff her troubles, which is why I didn't care for the ending. She has an opportunity to tell her mom about the invitation when she asks about it, but she tells her oh, that's a story for another time. I'm sure this leads into the next book, but it seems like she is avoiding yet another problem. We never do find out if she accepts Lola's sleepover invitation.

See all her books on Amazon, or click below to more Carole P. Roman book reviews!

Oh Susannah, Bedtime Stories, Captain No Beard, If you were Me ... {Carole P. Roman Reviews}

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1 comment

  1. That's my impression of the first level of if you were me books as well. :)

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