Which reference book for SOTW?

[Gwenny]

I've been looking over my AG for SOTW1 and noticed they listed these for supplemental reading:
The Kingfisher Illustrated History of the World
The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia
The Usborne Book of World History
The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History

What's the difference between all these? Any thoughts on which is better or that you got the most use out of?
Thanks,
Gwen

[sagira]

OK, this is what I know:

The Kingfisher Illustrated History of the World is an older, out-of-print but collectible history resource liked by many. You can still find it in some places.

The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia is a newer, getting rarer to find, for older elementary students. Many people think it's too dry for early elementary. I like the looks of it and will be purchasing soon before it becomes out of print.

The Usborne Book of World History: I don't know much about this one, but some people like it a lot.

The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History was highly recommended by other WTMers for early elementary. I had the opportunity to see it at Books-A-Million this past weekend and it's gorgeous, high-interest to younger students. I put it on ds' Christmas wish list.

[Chris in VA]

I bought both the Usborne internet one and the Kingfisher (2nd one, not OOP) and have been just fine. I do like the Kingfisher's pictures better--less cartoony. But the links are fun--I just never really took the time to use them.
Imo, you really can't go wrong.
One thing, tho--if you are going to do WTM way for logic stage, she has the kids summarize/outline the Kingfisher, so if you can only buy one, I'd go with that one, since you'll use it later.

[dcjlkplus3]

We bought the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia for 1st grade to start history. I love it, but we seldom (almost never) use it. It is beautiful and I have zero regrets about buying it. We are only in 2nd grade now, and I know that we will use it in the future. For supplemental reading, we use instead the history and literature suggestion in our SOTW activity guide.

[Mommy22alyns]

I bought the Usborne (Internet-Linked) and Kingfisher (History Encyclopedia) ones, but we end up using Usborne almost exclusively since she's on the younger side. I think I've read somewhere that Kingfisher becomes the preferred reference as the grades advance.

[mumtoo3]

we are still new to all of this and we only have the usborne book, but dd loves it, we also have the usborne first encyclopedia of history, which is excellant for her age it only has 64 pages but is internet linked, and she loved seeing her name writtern in ancient sumerian! for younger children i cant recommend it highly enough :) hth

[MeganP]

I have all of them and I like the Usborne Internet Linked best for younger kids. IMO the Usborne Book of World History is too cartoony. It's great for kids to use on their own to read through, but I found it very difficult to use as a supplement. Both Kingfisher books are good for older students. They are somewhat different, but not enough that I would really have a preference of one over the other.

[~Summer~]

I can't compare all these as I have not used them all. I too didn't know which one to purchase but I ended up buying The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History and I am so happy I chose this as our reference book. This is my ds(7)'s favorite book....up until this point he hasn't gotten into science, history, etc. But ever since I got this book he has been carrying around the house looking at it and having us read the pages to him. He said the other day, "I want my room FULL of history books so that I can read them all the time". So...I credit The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History to giving my son a love for history. But I know this won't happen for all kids;).

It is a really good history supplement to SOTW. I haven't even looked into any of the internet links that it has offered yet.

[Crimson Wife]

I looked at the Usborne IL and the KHE, and decided to go with the latter since it seemed like it had more "substance" to it. I also got the Usborne Encyclopedia of Ancient History for use in our study of ancient times. It's not as complete as the KHE because it only covers certain civilizations (Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome) but it goes into greater detail on those.