We read a fun one yesterday: "The Seventh Expert: An Interactive Medieval Adventure," by Mark Oakley and John Mantha (2008, Annick Press, 96 pp.). We've not read this kind of a book before, but it was quite entertaining.

It's 1368, and your village has been swept away in a storm; with six other community leaders, you relocate the survivors to a new village site, and for seven years, you try to ensure the survival of the community. You expend "effort" points on supplies and infrastructure (there's a catalogue at the end of the book), and respond to various random events, determined by rolling a die. Lots of bad things can happen: weather, bandits, plague, taxes (!), battle...The kids found it a challenge to accumulate enough food and so on to get through a winter in the face of all these trials and tribulations!

The book is well-researched; beside the main story, there are informative sidebars about various aspects of 14th-century life, as well as a brief but useful bibliography. Quite a fun way to learn some history!

The authors field-tested the book on grade 7 and 8 students, but it's eminently usable with younger ones, too.

peace
minnie

PS The game sheets are available at the publisher's website: www.annickpress.com . The Seventh Expert has its own microsite there, where the scoresheet can be found.

Last edited by minniemarx; 08/04/09 08:28 AM. Reason: added postscript