Would u consider…..

I’m not sure if they are living books, but my kids like them and I use them.  Especially for subjects/time periods where material is scarce.  I went through a massive de-booking a while ago, trying to get rid of everything that was not ‘living’ or ‘worthwhile’ and I got rid of my many book collection of the If You Lived series.  A year or so later my oldest son, out of the blue, commented, “I sure love those If You Lived books.  We should get more of them.”  Uh…

Really I think it comes down to personal preference.  If you like them use them.  If they bother you, don’t.

We have a ton of them and use them for whatever they happen to work for.  My dc do like them, but they are full of “information” and sometimes that is a little over-kill and not so easy to narrate from. But we still have them and still use them. My dc love the pictures and actual “info” of what it might have really been like.  Usually they are speechless.

I’d have a hard time getting rid of them. But…I think I like the David Adler books better..picture books about the same size, those are good.  Well, actually I’m not sure if he wrote all of them…I have one on Lincoln, Jefferson, and not sure who else, maybe Ben Franklin.

I never thought about them being information overload…I wonder if that’s why we rarely pull them out?  We have a few of them, and my DC generally use them as “before bed” reading.  Then usually read only a page or two each night.  I don’t think I’d consider them “twaddle”, but they aren’t my first pic either.