Over at the Rosemary Sutcliff page on Facebook which is connected with this site, Danielle Vaughan writes:
I am reading The Silver Branch to my 12 year old. We read The Eagle (of the Ninth) last September and he said it was his fave read of the year. However, I fear his sudden hormonal growth is preventing his full attention for this book … we are persevering, however, at the moment
She wonders (as I do now) if if there are supplementary online roman interactive sites they could also “look at to ‘set the scene’ as it were “. Are there? Can anyone help? Please share this elsewhere so we can see if the much vaunted collective of the cloud can help!
Should be something here:
http://www.culture24.org.uk/history%20%26%20heritage/time/roman
“Explore the history of Roman Britain with exhibitions, events, features, news and web resources gathered from hundreds of museums, archives and historic sites across the UK.”
There are a lot of Roman history websites around- the problem may be getting the level right for a 12 year old. There are plenty aimed at primary level and some excellent ones for adults, but intermediate level kids sort of miss out.
Don’t forget the old-fashioned book, though, there are some good ones like
“Navigators: Ancient Rome”
The Usborne Encyclopedia of the Roman World: Internet-Linked (History Encyclopedias)
and the “Usborne Encyclopedia of the Roman World” which is actually internet-linked
The Usborne Encyclopedia of the Roman World: Internet-Linked (History Encyclopedias)
There are quite a few non-fiction titles about Roman Britain, too – look for ones with plenty of illustrations. I remember poring over a copy of the old “Readers’ Digest Roman Britain”, myself, but there are more exciting ones around these days.
It may also be that your son is finding “Silver Branch” rather hard going – the plot is a lot more complex than “Eagle of the Ninth”. Perhaps it might be worth going back to stories like “Outcast” or “Warrior Scarlet”? Rosemary Sutcliff’s take on Beowulf, “Dragonslayer” is a great read for boys as well.
Sorry, accidentally linked the Usborne book twice!
This is the “Navigators” book
Navigators: Ancient Rome
Anything with featuring Roman soldiers seems to go down well with boys!
I follow these folks on Twitter http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/roman/ They have a lot of stuff going on for kids.