I read Valley of the Horses too - - weren't there three? I'm not
   sure if I read them all. I loved the hard science of it: I was
   always a fan of hard science fiction, although I didn't know it
   was called that at the time. I loved that I'd be reading it,
   recognize a fact that I knew was true, and then I'd end up
   learning a lot of stuff I *didn't* know, but I could trust the
   author. The one teacher definitely read it (we'd discuss stories
   from it after school) - and the other teacher? I don't know. I
   suspect she did too, but I think for her it was a guilty
   pleasure. == "prehistoric romance". Sometimes it's categorized
   as that. == Yeah - I think it's the best way to learn history -
   if they do it right. A few hours ago, I had to help my nephew
   through some American Revolution homework. 5th grade. They're
   going over Boston Massacre. Common Core teaching materials. The
   way they teach it now in 2016? The way I was taught it way back
   when? Not much different. Dry with purposely confusing
   questions. One of them had me stumped, but I refused to look on
   the Internet for the answer - he didn't either because he was up
   for the challenge. finally it hit me and when I said it, he got
   it too... and then I was pissed because it's a question that no
   5th grader could POSSIBLY answer on their own. ugh. Sorry for
   the side-track - just a contrast to "good ways to learn history"
   and "crappy ways to learn history" ==