(130 pages) This book is about how people lived in the Middle Ages. It goes into detail about things like the plague and the crusades. I think that it would be a good book for information for middle school students, that are looking for research or are interested in these times.

History

The Measly Middle Ages is another book in the entertaining Horrible Histories series. The timeline the book gives the Middle Ages (also known by the less easily spelled 'medieval' ages) is 410 to 1492 AD/CE, Columbus' discovery of the Americas.

We start out with William the Conqueror, of course. The feudal classes are explained. French and English revolts are described.

The two made-up 'Paris Post' news stories for 22 June and 22 July 1358 about the Jacquiere revolt reminded me of the ten March 1815 headlines from the 'Moniteur Universal' newspaper about Napoleon's victory march to Paris, which apparently were equally made up by Alexandre Dumas in 1841.

The Lady Godiva legend is written as if it were fact, although the Peeping Tom part is noted as added later.

The Bubonic Plague or Black Death is followed by other diseases and the cures used then, which weren't great. Some are disgusting. (The story contrasting an able Arab doctor with an incompetent European doctor was horrifying.)

The evil side of knights is given. The true story about Ludlow Castle in the 12th century was sad, as was the story about Renault and the Dame of Fayel.

We're given some crimes and their punishments during the Angevin period. That's 'followed by the kind of food eaten during the Middle Ages, with two recipes given. I highly recommend that no pesticides have been used on any rose petals used to make the rose pudding. (Greenflies are aphids, by the way.)

The section on manners is followed by one on toilets. The description of filthy English homes of the period made me glad I didn't live then.

Four famous battles (Hastings, Bannockburn, Crécy, and Bosworth Field) pose two possible strategies for the reader to pick. Then we're told which one was used and how that turned out. The end of that section includes the verses of a troubadour's bloodthirsty song about war. I'm with the veteran in the illustration.

The section on women's lives back then is depressing despite the humor, such as what the Catholic Church had to say about the new fashions of the time. (Hint: hated them.) The stories about five strong women were better. (Joan of Arc is the only one I had heard about before.)

How children were treated back then was bad, but students might like trying the games described.

I didn't do well with the quiz.

The corruption of the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages is the last section before the epilogue. The miracle/mystery plays are included. They show that audiences enjoyed gory violence back then as much as they do today. You may snicker at some of the things believed back then, but some people believe things that are just as unlikely these days.

The Epilogue covers how the Middle Ages ended and throws in a very apt quotation from Voltaire.

I recommend this book for students and adults. ( )

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I really enjoyed reading this book because i learned alot about what happend during hte middle ages. This book teaches you in a fun way like sometimes instead of explaining somthing they will turn it into a comic with a picture and you would still learn the same thing. i would recommend this book to anybody over the age of 8