I quite liked the idea of these Terrible True Tale books – they take a true event and then write a story around it. I always thought they were great to read if you were studying that time period so when I heard there was a new one out – Terrible True Tales Tudors, I said I would review it (this is NOT a paid for post I just agreed to read a review copy of the book and give my thoughts on it).

The book itself contains four short stories, each one set in the Tudor times and each one based on something that did actually happen. The stories themselves are aimed at kids in the 7- 10 age range, so there is nothing explicit or too brutal in them, they are historical fiction stories written for young kids.

Each story is followed by a short explanation of what it was based on and an idea for a fun activity you could do afterwards.

The first story is a fun story which raises a question of switched identities, could Prince Edward (who was killed) have been switched and a decoy Prince murdered instead. I love these stories because it can really get the kids thinking about what could have happened, it can be a great start for lots of creative writing. And I also liked that the mean character in this story gets punished for the way he treated the servants.

The second one is all about how some people would con others out of their money. In this case a father, mother and son have a scheme going where they fool people into giving them money only for them to be spotted by someone from the palace and they ended up being taken to Hampton Court Palace to entertain Henry.

The third one touches on how random people could accuse innocent people of being witches and without evidence theses so called witched could be burned at that stake. I enjoyed the twist in this story because the so called witch ends up tricking the people who wanted to sacrifice her (I always like a story where the innocent win and the bad character gets punished).

The fourth story touches on Shakespeare and how one of his plays was used as a signal to try and start a rebellion. This is a story which I had never heard of before so I found it fascinating, I also enjoyed the way they depicted Queen Elizabeth.

All four stories give you a good idea about life during the Tudor times and get you thinking about events that happened and sometimes wondering “what if”.

I think this would be a great book to read if your kids are learning about the Tudors and I think the stories will definitely raise a few questions and get your kids thinking about possibilities.

For anyone interested here is an Amazon link – Terrible True Tales Tudors

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