Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Salem Ridge Press - Great Historical Fiction

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I love History.
I love Historical Fiction even more.
I love finding new authors and companies selling good quality Historical Fiction, books that are not twaddle.

This company has some of the best.
My boys and I loved these books.

Salem Ridge Press is reprinting Historical Fiction from years ago. Books long forgotten. Books you are not likely to find in your library. I know they are not in my county libraries. Salem Ridge Press searches out old books and chooses the best and reprints them. There is more information on their site on their mission and how they choose their books.

The language in these books is older as are the books. We did not really have trouble with this. A few of the words threw us for a loop though. Thankfully Salem Ridge Press has helped with that by providing definitions of some of the words most would not know at the bottom of each page. It was very helpful to not have to read with my dictionary on hand. We only needed this on a couple of words since we read a lot of older books, but it was a great help in those cases.

Besides the books on their site have some wonderful articles. I especially liked these:

Make sure to read them...

after you finish reading my review.

Salem Ridge Press sent me three books to review. Out of the Mouth of the Lion came as a print book in paperback. The Martyr's Victory and Yussuf the Guide came as e-books.
Out of the Mouth of the Lion by Emma Leslie
Asia Minor
163 - 166 A.D.

Softcover $14.95
Hardcover $24.95
This book is about the early Christians and the Roman government and Jews of the time that persecuted and made many Christians martyrs for Christ. The picture on the cover conveys the topic well. There is separation from family because of Christ and there is reuniting and redemption. This book was hard to read emotionally for me right now. It is so convicting. The early Christians were so devoted, steadfast, and faithful. Find out a little more about Out of the Mouth of the Lion on the Salem Ridge Press site. But not too much more... we don't want to give away the whole story. Emma Leslie uses scripture in each of her books. She also has Godly characters both real and fiction. For example Polycarp is in this book. Each of the churches of Revelation is mentioned that Paul had visited. I loved the applying of those verses about the churches in the book. Genius! 

Here... How about this... Read the First Chapter of Out of the Mouth of the Lion! I guarantee you will want to read more... you will want to buy not only this book but all the books by Emma Leslie

The Martyr's Victory by Emma Leslie
Danish England
879 - 883 A.D.

Softcover $14.95
Hardcover $24.95
A small group of monks enter the part of England ransacked by the vikings. Why? To bring them salvation of course. This book tells about this time and the trials the monks went through trying to bring Christ to the barbarian. Here is a little quote from the preface that sums things up.
"...that they have done noble work for God and mankind, all must admit, and we may still learn many a useful lesson from the self-denying, devoted lives of monks..."
Read the First Chapter of the Martyr's Victory!

  
Yussuf the Guide by George Manville Fenn
Softcover $16.95
Hardcover $26.95 
A young sick boy convinces his guardians to take him with them on a trip. They of course encounter many adventures including meeting their turkish guide. Who are the good guys, who are the "bad" guys?

Here is a quote from the book:

"“If you ask my advice, Gentlemen, I should say, carry each of you a good revolver, a knife or dagger, a sword, and a double-barreled gun.”
“Sword, dagger, and gun!” cried the professor.
“Surely a revolver would be sufficient.”
“Why not push a nice large brass cannon before
us in a wheelbarrow?” said Mr. Burne sarcastically,
"
LOL Kind of funny if you are just reading it. Serious if you are the ones living it. Just shows what a dangerous time they lived in.
Doesn't that make you want to read the story... or maybe this will... CHAPTER X -  A NIGHT OF HORRORS Eeeeeww... makes you want to find out what happens!!!
Read the First Chapter of Yussuf the Guide!


We used these books in this way. I gave the book and e-books to the boys... they devoured them. Oh, we also own Glauca, the Greek Slave. It sat on our selves and no one read it... until the other Salem Ridge Press books arrived. Then ds (age 16) read the whole book in less than 24 hours!! Free Blinkies I guess it was good.
So here is what my boys have to say about the books.
Christopher - "dramatic, I really like these books"
Nathan - "excellent, stupendous, want to read more"

Salem Ridge Press has done some work that may be useful to you on their website:
Alphabetical Listing of books
Chronological Listing of books - makes it easy to find the books that correspond to the time period you are covering for history. Most helpful to me since we study History chronologically.
Listing by author
Listing by age range - so you can order books that are appropriate to your child's age(s).


I can't wait to read the new release George Alfred Henty - The Story of an Active Life by George Manville Fenn. We love Henty and reading a biography about him by the writer of Yussuf the Guide sounds great. I hope my hubby will let us order a book or two soon.


Save 15% when you buy the 6-Book Early Church Set
Medieval Church Set - Save 15%
Save 25% when you purchase the 12-Book Church History Set

All of their titles are also available as E-books at TOS Magazine's Schoolhouse Store

Also make sure you sign up for the newsletter. They say on their site, "As we release each new title throughout 2010, we will select one family who receives the newsletter to receive a free copy!" Not that that is the only reason to sign up for the newsletter. Some of the articles I mentioned above come from their newsletter. So I am looking forward to future articles from them too.

Out of five stars I give these Salem Ridge Press books:

To see what my other crew members have to say about the Salem Ridge Press books check out the TOS Homeschool Crew Blog.

***Salem Ridge Press provided me with the books above so that I could do my review. Though I received these products for free I have given an honest review of them here in this post.

all content on my blog is ©

1 comment:

Dorie said...

Thank you for sharing this review. I love older books with their rich storylines and characters. I've never heard of Salem Ridge Press, but now, I'll check out their website.

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