3rd Grade History / Literature - Early Modern Times
Explore the best 3rd grade history and literature books for early modern times, featuring *The Witch of Blackbird Pond*, *Marie Antoinette*, and more curated picks.
Book
Madeleine Takes Command
by Ethel C. Brill
This historical novel, set in 17th century New France, features Madeleine de Vercheres a teenage girl who takes up arms in defense of family, country, and faith against the Iroquois.
Book
The Reb and the Redcoats
by Constance Savery
In an interesting turnabout, the Revolutionary War is seen through the eyes of a British family to whom an American prisoner of war has been entrusted. Technically the young prisoner is in Uncle Lawrence's custody, but the children soon forge a forbidden friendship with him after he nearly dies in an attempted escape. He becomes the Reb and they, his Redcoats. But when they learn of some events leading to his coming to Europe, even Uncle Lawrence, embittered by the unjust death of a friend in America, thaws toward him-but this doesn't stop the Reb from scheming to escape. Constance Savery deftly weaves themes of trust and forgiveness into an interesting plot with likeable characters.
Book
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
by Elizabeth George Speare
In 1687 in Connecticut, Kit Tyler, feeling out of place in the Puritan household of her aunt, befriends an old woman considered a witch by the community and suddenly finds herself standing trial for witchcraft.
Book
Betsy and the Emperor
by Staton Rabin
"Think, my dear -- just think what it will be like, to be known as the girl who freed the great Napoleon Bonaparte!" Fourteen-year-old English girl Betsy Balcombe and her family have an unusual houseguest: Napoleon Bonaparte, former emperor of France and the most feared man on earth. Once lord and master to eighty-two million souls, now, in 1815, Napoleon is a captive of the British people. Stripped of his empire and robbed of his young family and freedom, he is confined to the forbidding, rat-infested island of St. Helena. The one bright star in Napoleon's black sky is Betsy, a blazingly rebellious teenager whose family is reluctantly housing the notorious prisoner. Betsy is the only foreigner Napoleon's ever met who is not impressed by him -- and Napoleon is more than intrigued. An unexpected alliance is formed. And a remarkable friendship between emperor and girl spawns gossip, and inspires Betsy to hatch a daring and dangerous scheme that could threaten both their lives and shake entire empires to their foundations.
Book
Marie Antoinette, Princess of Versailles
by Kathryn Lasky
Austria-France, 1769. Marie Antonia of Vienna has her whole life mapped out ahead of her. She is to marry Dauphin Louis Auguste, eldest grandson of King Louis XV. As his wife, she will be called Marie Antoinette and will be the highest princess of France. Upon the death of the King, she will become Queen Marie Antoinette. But she dreads both new roles.
