Review of "If You Were Me and Lived in . . . Elizabethan England," by Carole P. Roman

Review of

If You Were Me and Lived in . . . Elizabethan England, by Carole P. Roman ISBN 9781523229369

Five out of five stars

 Written at approximately the level of the second grade reader, this book is an excellent primer on how life was lived in Elizabethan England. It was a time of great change, through exploration, the rise of a significant merchant class and growing naval power, England rose to the level of a global superpower. Although there were still great gaps between the rich and poor, a new social class was rising, what we now call the middle class.

 Roman gives the reader brief descriptions of many aspects of London at the time, there are two main characters used in the description, a boy and a girl. They are members of a baker family that is up early on a daily basis in order to prepare their products for sale. At the time, London was crowded and dirty, people simply threw their garbage in the street and of course sanitary sewers did not exist yet.

 The role of the traditional wealthy and the new wealthy class led to the creation of permanently stationed entertainment companies, William Shakespeare and The Globe are mentioned. While all of the topics are by necessity only briefly mentioned, this is a book that would work very well as the text for a history segment in an elementary school class. I highly recommend it for the educational value. 

This book was made available for free for review purposes.