Castle Diary: The Journal of Tobias Burgess

These diary books by Richard Platt are absolutely wonderful! I can't praise them highly enough as great works of historical fiction for young children. My five year old son can't get enough of this book. He loves it so much that I recently purchased the Pirate Diary for him. I didn't pay attention to editions or dimensions. I just purchased it. Well, it was tiny, about 5x6 compared to the large and lavish 10x13 first edition Castle Diary that we own. Also, instead of full page, full color illustrations there were black and white sketches here and there. So, I checked out the Castle Diary book again on Amazon and the same thing has been done. Look carefully at what you're ordering. The first editions are very large and gorgeously illustrated in full color with the text interspersed throughout. The editions available now are much smaller. They are mainly text with a few black and white sketches.I am so saddened by what they have done to these books. In their original form, they are five star books for sure. I can only give four stars to the newer editions, however. The writing is the same but they have lost their picture book charm which made them accessible to younger kids. Even for older kids, however, a picture is worth a thousand words and would surely be greatly appreciated.In short, I would rather own a used first edition of these books than a brand new copy of the modified version. I just wanted to point out the difference to prospective buyers.

I had to read this book for school, at first i was not really exited about it because school is boring and all, but once i started reading it i realized that its a really good book!! It's fun to read and it is also educational. Would recommend.

I chose 5 stars because like I said it just feels real and feels medieval. I really love the view and story it gives.

Tons of information about thirteenth-century life is packed into this story about a young castle page. Tobias is a normal kid who, thanks to his father's moderate standing in society, gets to experience the excitement and complexity of living and working in a castle. His diary, while full of facts, is written from his unfiltered eleven-year-old perspective, and so is readable and amusing. Castle Diary is a fun romp through an important element of the Middle Ages.

This is a fun book for kids to get a great idea of what life may have been like in medieval times. My son is in 3rd grade and really enjoyed both the format (a diary being different than most stories we read) and the story. We homeschool using Classical Conversations and this book fit in great with Cycle 2. My son is an advanced reader and was able to read this on his own, but that might not be the case for every third grader.

I highly recommend this book as a reader on its own or as part of a unit on the Middle Ages. The readability is appropriate for 9-11 year olds. It is informative yet interesting and children can easily relate to it. A few middle english words and phraseology are included to give the book some type of realistic writing and the terms are explained as they are used. It is also a great book to use as a springboard for writing. My students couldn't wait to start their own castle diary after finishing this one.

I was so excited about this book and was not disappointed! This is a great medieval book to catch the interest of the entire class. The book does a great job of incorporating all aspects of the life of a page and gives great detail into the life inside a castle. We teach medieval history in fourth grade. This will be a perfect summer reading book for rising fourth graders. This author has two other diary type books that are worth checking out.

Great book about what times would be like in the castles

My son loves this. Interesting to both readers and visual skimmers. Well done.

Bien