The Middle Ages wasn’t just a time for knights, lords, and castles. Kids lived during this time, too, and this volume introduces readers to all aspects of their daily lives. Fans of historical fiction will delight in exploring the Middle Ages through the eyes of a child who lived during that time. The text covers family life, what kids wore and ate, how they were educated, and what games they played. Beautiful illustrations and modern-day photos aid readers in visualizing this era, while a glossary, index, and reference websites provide opportunities for additional learning.

The Middle Ages wasn’t just a time for knights, lords, and castles. Kids lived during this time, too, and this volume introduces readers to all aspects of their daily lives. Fans of historical fiction will delight in exploring the Middle Ages through the eyes of a child who lived during that time. The text covers family life, what kids wore and ate, how they were educated, and what games they played. Beautiful illustrations and modern-day photos aid readers in visualizing this era, while a glossary, index, and reference websites provide opportunities for additional learning.

The Middles Ages aren't just an uninteresting period of history trapped between ancient times and the Renaissance, as the name suggests. It's 1,000 years of fascinating historical events, including the Crusades, the Black Death, and the longest war that has ever been fought. This comprehensible book takes young historians on the journey from the beginning of medieval times to the end. Maps, historical artwork, and a timeline help readers understand the essential moments of the Middle Ages.

Beginning in the twelfth century, clergy and laity alike started wondering with intensity about the historical and developmental details of Jesus' early life. Was the Christ Child like other children, whose characteristics and capabilities depended on their age? Was he sweet and tender, or formidable and powerful? Not finding sufficient information in the Gospels, which are almost completely silent about Jesus' childhood, medieval Christians turned to centuries-old apocryphal texts for answers. In The Quest for the Christ Child in the Later Middle Ages, Mary Dzon demonstrates how these apocryphal legends fostered a vibrant and creative medieval piety. Popular tales about the Christ Child entertained the laity and at the same time were reviled by some members of the intellectual elite of the church. In either case, such legends, so persistent, left their mark on theological, devotional, and literary texts. The Cistercian abbot Aelred of Rievaulx urged his monastic readers to imitate the Christ Child's development through spiritual growth; Francis of Assisi encouraged his followers to emulate the Christ Child's poverty and rusticity; Thomas Aquinas, for his part, believed that apocryphal stories about the Christ Child would encourage youths to be presumptuous, while Birgitta of Sweden provided pious alternatives in her many Marian revelations. Through close readings of such writings, Dzon explores the continued transmission and appeal of apocryphal legends throughout the Middle Ages and demonstrates the significant impact that the Christ Child had in shaping the medieval religious imagination.

It can be hard for today's kids to imagine life 500 to 1,000 years ago. Did kids go to school? What did they do for fun? This book answers these questions and more about what childhood was like during the Middle Ages! The text covers family life, what kids wore and ate, how they were educated, and what games they played. Historical images and modern-day photos aid readers in visualizing the time period while achievable text encourages independent reading.

From leftover trenchers and stinky chamber pots to barber surgeons and the black plague, life could be really miserable for people during medieval times. Get ready to explore the nasty side of life in the Middle Ages.

The Middle Ages (800–1400) were a rich and vibrant period in the history of European culture, society, and intellectual thought. Emerging state powers, economic expansion and contraction, the growing influence of the Christian Church, and demographic change all influenced the ideals and realities of childhood and family life. Movements for Church reform brought the spiritual and moral concerns of the laity into sharper focus, profoundly shaping attitudes towards gender and sexuality and how these might be applied to family roles. At the same time, the growth of trade, the spread of literacy and learning, shifting patterns of settlement, and the process of urbanization transformed childhood. This volume explores the ideas and practices which underpinned contemporary perceptions of childhood in the medieval West, and illuminates the enduring importance of the family as a dynamic economic, political, and social unit. A Cultural History of Childhood and Family in the Middle Ages presents essays on family relationships, community, economy, geography and the environment, education, life cycle, the state, faith and religion, health and science, and world contexts.