Becca - my children read the 1-3 suggested reading and we skipped the Columbus listed in Geography. We had a book about Columbus I picked up somewhere so we read that instead. There is a lot about Columbus and it seems you can overdo him real quick! There is a chapter about him in Around the World in a Hundred Years too. I can't speak for those particular books though.
Tara

Thanks everyone - seems like they're worth buying!

Loved them, too:)

Highly recommend them. We used all as suggested in Module 4 last year with children now ages 13, 12, 10, 7 and 6.

I read some of them as a kid and really liked them.

I have some, but not all of them. We plan to start module 4 next week. I decided to purchase those for the first term and decide from there, whether we'd get the rest.

Tara, Along the same line, did you have to read both the Rhodes and Foster books about Columbus during your module 4 studies? I have the Foster book. I'm wondering if doing both is unnecessary? One is used for geography, the other for history. I pulled from what I have in our family library and reworked most of the schedule based on what we have available. If I drop the Rhodes book during geography time and only do map studies, I think we will have plenty. But, would like to know if we'd really miss a good book that way.

Becca<><

We just finished The Bible Smuggler, and before that we did The Beggars Bible. My children are 4, 6, and 8. They were a big hit here! I'm glad I bought them - I was going to skip them but church history is very important to me.
They usually begged for another chapter, but I made them wait :-)
I enjoyed them a lot too. We still have Thunderstorm in Church and although we are going to start Mod 5 in September and are technically on break until then we are going to read it for leisure reading to fit it in.
They are exciting books that really make the characters come alive. The Beggars Bible is excellent for learnig about the feudal system. My 4yo can define "serf" from listening to that book.
My children have definitely learned to appreciate our freedom of worship from reading these books. The thought of not having a Bible to read brought tears to my oldest son's eyes.
I recommend them, obviously. They not only tell the powerful stories of the lives of men who sacrificed all to bring the gospel to every person, but also they are a treasury of rich knowledge about the time period. We were constantly googling things to see what they looked like or for more info. My 4 and 6yo girls liked them, although my 6yo and 8yo got more out of them. I plan to keep them and I'm sure they will get read again.
Tara

I can't seen to find any reviews for Louse A Vernon's books (eg Bible Smuggler, Thunderstorm in the Church) of which there are 4 scheduled for Mod 4 History, and they're not available from my library.  Before I spend the money, I'd love to know how others have found them. My girls are 6 and 4. Thanks