Diane Stanley's picture book biographies are wonderful! I can think of a number of titles I have seen so often on homeschool families' shelves: Joan of Ark, Michelangelo, Peter the Great, Saladin, Charles Dickens, and more! She has a very unique and captivating way to write--and illustrate--these great historical figures' biographies! These are longer picture books with a pretty good amount of text on each page. The Bard of Avon follows all that is known about William Shakespeare, his personal and professional life, the Globe Theater and the world he lived in.

Lois Burdett was an elementary school teacher in Canada who found herself in a town where every public school was named after a work of Shakespeare, and yet her students knew nothing of the Bard! The books in this series contain her work to present Shakespeare to her very young (second grades) students. Not much original Shakespeare here besides the stories, as the text recreates the famous plays in simple rhyming couplets.

This is a war series, set in England during WWII. The series centers around an aging detective, with a dry English wit, and an unassuming manner. Each episode (there are five sets in the Foyle’s War series and each set has four episodes in it) involves a murder mystery. There is an assortment of likable characters that appear throughout the series. Some of the British dialect is at times difficult to decipher. The movies would also have appeal for history students. There is much gentle humour in the series, not a little war-time pathos.

This is a lovely and inexpensive Rummy game that also teaches the mysteries of the rosary. It includes two colorful cards, illustrated with Old Masters paintings, for each 0f the twenty mysteries of the rosary. The Rummy game requires both matching and ordering the mysteries. Instructions are included. So far, we've been using it as a memory game - and even my five year old (who admittedly is a memory enthusiast) loves it.