Browse our Categories! Arms and Armor Celtic Lore Historical Fiction Historical Non-Fiction (A-H) Historical Non-Fiction (I-R) Historical Non-Fiction (S-Z) King Arthur Legends Miscellaneous Fiction Miscellaneous Non-Fiction

Historical The Queen's Progress: An Elizabethan Alphabet by Celeste Davidson Mannis illus. by Bagram Ibatoullini $16.99 / Penguin Putnam / 2003 Focusing on Queen Elizabeth I's "royal progress," her annual summer tour of the English countryside, The Queen's Progress is a book for children age 4 to 8, although the history is sophisticated enough for an adult to appreciate. The book is organized alphabetically, with 26 separate topics listed from A through Z. While various themes recur (such as political intrigue and assassination attempts by supporters of her rival, Mary Queen of Scots; the quaint entertainments she encounters along the way; jousting tournaments; sumptuous feasts, and pleasure gardens), the book does not have an actual plot but rather offers a flavor of the historical period. Ibatoullini's illustrations are also stunning in their detail. The "E is for England" illustration, for instance, depicts a group of English courtiers working over a detailed map of England in an attempt to accommodate Elizabeth's latest travel whim while a small dog nips at the hem of one courtier's tunic. "U is for Useful" features a boisterous village scene featuring a woman in a bonnet who is "braining" a goateed pickpocket and an Elizabethan maid swatting at a cutpurse with a broom. The rhymes that accompany each illustration carry the alphabet motif and are meant to serve as a sort of lullaby. The book ends on such a note, when we read,   Y is for Yeoman, who closes the gate   Time now for bed.      It's getting quite late.   Z is for zounds!     We have come to the end.   And now to your dreams,     dear child attend. The delightful historical material and the wonderful illustrations alone make this a more valuable child's book than many of the silly stories that parents might otherwise read to their children. —Charles Rammelkamp

Click here to order:The Queen's Progress             To order Renaissance Magazine, click here. To order medieval tapestries and other period products, click here.