New Recommended Reading

Homeschool Review Crew

Britfield &the Lost Crown

We love to read in our family.  I’m always looking for good books for my kids to read.  Our latest review from The Homeschool Review Crew is definitely a new recommended reading book.  Britfield & The Lost Crown is a great read for those middle school and high school readers in your homeschool.  In addition to a physical copy of this book, we were given access to download and use a study guide that goes with the book.  I’ll chat more about it later.  

As far as reading goes we always have stacks of books everywhere.  I love to read and normally have anywhere from two to five different books going at a time.  My kids have picked this up and are forever reading as well.  This is definitely something I love!  But it also means I’m constantly screening books to make sure they fit our family values before letting my kids read them.  This might mean I have to read them or at least look them up and see how everyone reviews them.  Talk about time-consuming with how fast my kids devour books. 

I am forever grateful to be able to review good books.  Books that I know to be solid faith-based without questionable content so I know my kids aren’t going to be repeating bad phrases or acting out scenes that I wish they’d never read.  So this new recommended reading is a hit in my book!

About the Book

This is a fairly long book around 386 pages give or take a few from the introduction etc.  Written by C. R. Stewart it is the first book in a planned series.  My children read this one and immediately asked if I could get book two as it is a cliff hanger type book.  They were very disappointed that the next book was not available already. 

Britfield & the Lost Crown takes you across the sea to England or the UK.  While there you travel with two orphans from the Weatherly Orphanage who run away in search of Tom’s parents.  Sarah goes with Tom as they are friends and won’t leave each other alone.  Tom has one clue to his past which is the word Britfield.  

While you follow the story you get to learn about several fun locations and visit historical places throughout England.  These are great spots to add on the extra study and little units of study to go with the book.

Can Tom possibly be heir to a throne?  How impossible is that?  Or is it really? 

Along the way Tom and Sarah find and befriend two professors who help them.  Maybe they can help them learn the truth.

Study Guide

The accompanying study guide is 83 pages long.  It gives you areas to study as you go through the book.  This is meant to be used over an 8-week time frame.  While we have not used the entire study guide we have used bits and pieces as I am a huge fan of not only reading but studying while reading making things unit studies.  Always fun to be had this way!

I printed off the study guide making it easier for me to pick and choose what we wanted to use.  My kids definitely devoured the book.  Because this is such a great book (and a new recommended reading book from us) my kids did not take long to read it.  

Our plan now that most of the kids have had the chance to read it on their own is to go through the book and read it as a read-aloud making use of the study guide.  It’s my plan to stave off them wanting the next book a bit since it still needs to release.  So sad that authors don’t wait to have the whole series written before releasing them.  Would make the anxiety levels of my kids go down several notches for sure!

The study guide is well put together.  It is full of vibrant colors and clearly laid out so I know what and when for using.  It’s broken up by chapters.  You’re going to use vocabulary, find synonyms, grammar, and lots of comprehension questions.  The only things I’ll be adding to it are finding and having books lying around for reading that coordinate with the time period and location that we’re studying and adding some extra reading on some of the fun sights they see while in the story.

Our Thoughts

We love this book!  Obviously, you’ve already guessed that.  We probably wouldn’t keep saying it’s a new recommended reading if we didn’t even like the book!

I have had seven children ages 8 through 14 who read this book on their own during our review period.  They ALL loved it!  That’s saying something given the age range and that these are both boys and girls with lots of varying interests.  Now I can’t wait to start it as a read-aloud because I’m excited to read it too.  

Some of the things that are being said by my children about this book:

• Can you get book two NOW?!
• We need to know what happens next!
• This is such a good book.
• Can’t come outside to play I’m reading.
• Can I bring this book with me?
• Could we go to England?

Trust me when I say the questions they ask are amazing and I love how much they’re learning from reading the book.  They’ve all been spellbound and read this book rather quickly.  It is long but they devoured it at a fast pace.  This can only be said for the truly good books.

The cover is very nicely done and really draws you in.  This would be a book I’d pick up to read the back cover of because it is eye-catching and makes you want to find out what the book is about.  

We definitely recommend this book and think you’ll love it!  The main character is 12 so that gives you a nice guess to what age it will appeal to.  I would say roughly ages 8- adult would be the appropriate age range for the book.  That being said my six and three-year-olds will listen to this as a read-aloud and I’m sure they’re going to love it!

Learn More

Learn more about Britfield & the Lost Crown by reading the reviews linked up on the Main Blog Post over on the Homeschool Review Crew blog or by visiting them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.