Plumfield and Paideia

Maggie the Magnificent

Reviewed by Greta
Maggie the Magnificent is the story of an Australian magpie. I would not have been surprised if Maggie flew off the page and began to sing. This book chronicles the life of Maggie–a typical magpie–from a fledgling to an adult bird. Maggie does not tell us about himself–he acts, thinks, and communicates like a bird. Magnificently life-like human characters give us an account of what magpies are and do. And when they can’t, Thompson fills the gap. The people in this story tell us other facts that many of us probably don’t know.  Read the full review

Magic in the Margins: A Medieval Tale of Bookmaking

Reviewed by Diane Pendergraft
Readers learn the fact that Simon has to know how to make parchment, cure quill pens, grind pigments for paint, and write the alphabet. We learn the meaning of “bestiary,” “herbal,” and “psalter.” There are some lovely and interesting illustrations, but I don’t find it as illustrative of the art and craft of medieval book-making as some of the other resources on our list. Read the full review

The Magna Charta

Reviewed by Sara Masarik
Written with powerful and romantic prose, James Daugherty invites us into the exciting drama of the Magna Charta. He opens with a prologue titled “The Magic Island” that reads like the introduction to epic poetry and then gives us a most handy family tree to help us follow along through the twists and turns of wars, power struggles, and political intrigue. Then, he breaks the story into four parts: “The Twelfth Century,” “The Angevins,” “King John,” and “The Magna Charta.” Then a most fascinating final forty pages titled “The Children of the Magna Charta.” This last section is not only deeply interesting but it is also essential to understanding the Magna Charta itself and the ramifications of that revolutionary act. Read the full review