A Little Maid of Virginia from Applewood Books: Review

Life in colonial America has become a recurrent theme for this year as we prepared for our trip to Williamsburg.

Rose loves all things history and is reading several years ahead of her expected grade-level. The struggle I have is providing her engaging stories written in a way that will challenge her, but also be age-appropriate. The Little Maid series by Alice Curtis has provided wonderful historical fiction at a higher reading level which is also appropriate for her young 8 years. She has read one other book by Alice Curtis which she really enjoyed and definitely looked forward to beginning A Little Maid of Virginia. 

I scheduled Rose to read a chapter from the book each day. This was one of the most challenging books she has read simply because of the language style. Written in the early part of the 20th century, the complex descriptions and sentence structure are not easy for our 21st century minds. My sweet girl jumps right into challenges though and is not afraid to say, "What does this mean, Mommy?" I truly feel challenging a child's abilities gently and intentionally is the best way for them to progress.

Rose enjoyed the historical aspects and it opened many opportunities to discuss life during this time as well as more information about the Revolutionary War. The fact that the story revolves around two girls who are cousins made it very enjoyable for her to read as she is also very close to her cousins. 

This also would make an excellent read-aloud choice for family reading. It is a wonderful example of the living books way to introduce history to young girls. Many aspects of colonial times and the Revolutionary War are difficult to express to young children because of their sadness and violence, yet Alice Curtis inspired my daughter to want to know more and gently introduced her to this period of history. 

Are you looking for great classic novels to introduce your daughters to history? This is a wonderful series to check out!

Disclaimer: I received A Little Maid of Virginia from Applewood Books in return for an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review. This is my own opinion.