Off With Their Heads!: All the Cool Bits in British History

by Martin Oliver, Andrew Pinder (Illustrator)

Bursting with the best-bits from British history, this book seeks to inspire a love of history that can last a lifetime. Including rules to remember the rulers of Britain, getting to grips with the gunpowder plot and clueing-up on the cruel fate of all six of Henry VIII's wives. Complete with light-hearted illustrations by Andrew Pinder, Off With Their Heads is the perfect treat for any young history lover.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Reference, Childrens, Historical

128 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2009

About the author

Martin Oliver lives in the United Kingdom.

Reviews

[Elle]

It's taken me about 3 months to admit that this is quite possibly thee most boring book alive.

I love history.

This sucks the life from it.


EDIT:

With this being so short I've decided to try finish this book. I actually managed to complete the last section in one reading burst. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood before but I did enjoy bit of it. I liked the middle part of the book the best because it focused on history I actually enjoyed. The ancient history and modern history kinda went over my head a little bit.

I didn't feel like I learnt a lot of new things though, but it was average at best.

[Catherine McDonald]

Off with their Heads!: All the Cool Bits in British History
Martin Oliver

This is an exciting and quirky new book that is sure to get children’s attentions in exploring a different history of Britain.
History is a subject that needs to be made accessible and exciting in the classroom. There may be a lack of interest in how the subject is being approached so this book is an excellent resource to have in Key Stage Two.
It provides an alternative and humorous way of looking at events in history. The events leading up to World War One are presented in an informative poem. I thought this was a nice alternative to just reading a paragraph about it.
It’s a great book to leave on the bookshelf for those explorative readers. Facts, events and famous people are presented in a child friendly and exciting manner that will catch the enthusiastic and the not so enthusiastic reader’s attention. Beautiful illustrations are used to lighten the text and appeal to all styles of learners.
Although it is not a resource that the Primary History Curriculum can be solely taught from as there are gaps, it is a nice supplement to the experience of history in the class. Be wary and warn the class that some of it is a bit gruesome (Henry’s wives!), but it is still an exceptional resource.
Cross- Curricular links can be found in English by looking at the poem and identifying stylistic features in it. Links can be found in ICT and Art as well through looking at the tour of Roman Life. A class project would be ideal here by getting the children to research more facts based on the books and they create their own display map of Roman Life, illustrating the key features they learned.

[Cahya · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an okay read. For a quick and very short summary to the British History that is written in a colloquial manner, this book would be quite relevant. However, it gets a bit boring and somewhat induces skepticism about the accuracy of the facts presented.

At the very least, this book can be a starting point because it got me raising questions for further research.

[Lucy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this book ages ago and when a Goodreads challenge came up, I read it. I didn't actually remember that this was a children's book so that was a little bit of a surprise.

This book is a whistlestop tour through British history where it covers two thousand years of history in 125 pages. It is very, very brief on many things but it was a reasonably good overview. I liked the illustrations but the book got a little boring at parts. Considering it was barely over a hundred pages, this took longer for me to read than I would have thought.

2.5 stars!

[Karlein · Rating 4 out of 5]

To be honest, I bought the books because of its fancy cover and quirky title. Though, when reading it I wasn't disappointed. It's not an academic account of past events, as it's not intended to be, but it's definitely worth reading to get a quick and fun overview of the events that happened in Britain throughout history.

[Malinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this short book on British history to be totally enjoyable! Not only did it get me excited to someday visit and explore where it all took place, but it also left me wanting to dive deeper and learn more.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book of British history for kids filled with short easily-digestible snippets and comedic cartoons.

[Cathrine Myers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick read with a good opportunity to recap on history and events

[Richard Johns · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good

This is an amazing book and I definitely recommend this. It gives you all the facts that you need to know.

[Ulrik · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun little book on british history. I’d recommend it to anyone that wants to have a brief summary on british history or teach their kids about it.

[Tobi Widell]

good

[Tom B · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is good as a gateway into the more detailed histories of each era. It's clearly aimed at kids, but the drawings are unfortunately quite bad. The timeline at the end was useful.

[Yusof Nik · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought the author summarised they events in Great Britain pretty well, suitable for kids.

[Larelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, but probably a little *too* broad. I think it might have been better as a series, with a little more time spent on more detail so kids could get small doses that were detailed enough but still interesting.

[Becca Packer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well I got 13 pages into it and lost track of how much they got wrong. Thought it would be a quick review of everything I pretty much know but the amount of how much was wrong hurt too much to keep reading. silly Americans.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Flipping through this book it looks like a really cool introduction to the rich and lengthy British history. (The B&W illustrations are humorous too.) This is going onto our to-read list for when my son is a bit older. I'd say it is definitely for late elementary/early middle school age.

[Guan Jie Fung · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tells you a lot about the british history with the funny and weird bits in it. Don`t like it when it talks about the queens and kings.

[Melyni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full of interesting facts about English history made easy to understand. It's a quick read, only being 125 pages and filled with funny comics. Definitely worth my time.

[Lil's Vintage World · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is more a 3.5 rating really, a good book and I did learn a few new things too!

[The Bookish Wombat · Rating 2 out of 5]

Basic facts on British history clearly explained - a useful reminder of what we've all forgotten since our schooldays.

[chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick easy read about the history of Briton.