HEROES OF HISTORY / YWAM Publishing Review

Finding good literature courses for homeschooling can sometimes be challenging. I think this might be the one subject that my homeschooling friends and I talk about the most because we worry about balancing good reading with projects and writing assignments.  I'm so excited to share a fabulous resource from YWAM Publishing today.


YWAM has two  book series - Heroes of History and Christian Heroes: Then & Now. Which honestly includes more books than I can count between the two!  Each of these series features reading books perfect for ages 10 and up (although you might want to use your own discretion for younger students.)

For this review we received Heroes of History: Abraham Lincoln: A New birth of Freedom by Janet & Geoff Benge - which is a physical book.  We also received the  Abraham Lincoln Unit Study Curriculum Guide (ours was a physical book but they now offer it as a downloadable product.)


The book is paperback and 224 pages.

The Downloadable Unit Study Curriculum Guide includes the following areas of study:

• Student Exploration
• Social Studie
• Community Link
• Related Themes to Explor
• Biography of Related Resources (recommended additional reading/movies and other media)
• Culminating Event - a section for additional projects

How We Used This:

My 8th grader had just started the new school year when this arrived. I thought it would be a nice gentle way to get back into the swing of literature for the year for him. (We always try to start gentle the first two weeks as we adjust to our new schedule/routine.)  He was able to read the book fairly quick - within a week. However we could have slowed it down depending on our schedule. For the guide I had him do the comprehension questions for each of the chapters.  Then he picked a big project from the suggested list. For him that was making a crossword puzzle all about Abe Lincoln.

My Thoughts:

I just loved this set. Like I said in my opening good literature courses can be hard to find.  These books can stand alone and are fantastic just as they are. My son really enjoyed reading about Lincoln and his life. So many amazing historical figures and Christian Heroes to read about - really make these an outstanding book series. However when you add the unit study curriculum guide to the mix you have a full course load - which really steps it up for older kids. That is what makes this set - gold! One think I loved is how easy it is to pick historical people from the time you are studying in your history curriculum.  I often see Moms asking what would be good books for a certain period of history - so this is an easy way to make a rounded out course study.

When we venture into American History next year we will definetly be looking at adding a few books from YWAM to balance out the studies! Another plus is how adaptable this set was. We did the work over two weeks but you could do a book faster or slower depending on schedules, students interests and how many activities you decided to do from the guide. (If we had lived local to any attractions we would have definitely done a field trip!)

Don't just take my word for it!  The Crew reviewed a bunch of YWAM books so click on the link below to see what they had to say!