Novel Study – Britfield & the Lost Crown

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We love books and a good novel study around here. When we were given the opportunity to review Britfield & the Lost Crown, we were very excited. Our adventure has only begun.

Our desire to learn about England, castles, and British history has been an ongoing but not a heavily explored topic of interest in our family. We have family and friends in England and one day (hopefully, sooner than later) we will be on-site learning. England is definitely on our list of places we would like to visit.

The closest the boys have ever been to a castle is to Casaloma in Toronto, Ontario. We actually went there with their granddad, who is British, and he was telling the boys all about the castles that he has visited. Ever since then, the boys have always wanted to go see a real, British, castle.

Because of this interest, using Britfield & the Lost Crown as a novel study, not just another book to read, was an intriguing challenge. We love learning about our passions and this novel came into our lives at the perfect time.

What Is Britfield & the Lost Crown?

Britfield & the Lost Crown is a fast-paced adventure novel written by C.R. Stewart. We follow the journey of Tom and Sarah as they escape the confines of a brutal orphanage, Weatherly. Once on the run, they elude capture as they are chased by Scotland Yard Detective, Detective Gowerstone. The orphans traverse the country with only one clue – Britfield.

Throughout Britfield & the Lost Crown, historical and geographical references are used to really set the scene and invoke thought for those who read this novel.

As we read through the pages, on my Kindle, I would highlight location-specific or historically relevant events for later use. We took turns reading aloud to the family, and we discussed each chapter as we went. This is a very fast-paced book but since we are using it for a novel study, we needed to slow down. Luckily, because an eBook makes taking notes easy, we were able to enjoy the fast-paced action and then go back and reflect upon the chapter we just read.

Novel Study

Provided along with this novel, as a gift for teachers and homeschoolers, is a study guide. The Britfield Study Guide is an 83 page, 8-week study guide. We approached our novel study by using this study guide as well as our own curiosity.

The study guide includes vocabulary and comprehension questions, as well as a section called ‘Learn More with Technology’. This section is designed to get you researching concepts in the novel in more detail. The vocabulary section has been well thought out – they use different approaches to learning vocabulary words. Our favourite was the crossword and word search they created.

We received our eBook a month ago and have worked our way through 8 chapters thus far. For us, this is actually quite a slow pace. We could easily read a book of this length in a night or two. The amazing thing about this book, when used as a novel study, is that there are so many leads you can follow.

British Authors

The first couple of chapters of Britfield & the Lost Crown had us researching British authors. The orphans seek comfort in books that they have commandeered from the Grievous’s private library.

They read books by Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, George Eliot, Charles Dickens, and more.

We were able to take these names, some of which were new to us, and learn more. We learned so many interesting facts. George Eliot, who was actually a female author by the name of Mary Anne Evans, wrote under a pen name because she wanted to escape the stereotype of women’s writing being limited to romance novels. We learned about the large library of works written by William Shakespeare. We knew a few but the sheer number of works by Shakespeare is an impressive feat. The boys were amazed that Pride and Prejudice, which was written in 1813 by Jane Austen, was turned into a movie in 2005 – almost 200 years after it was written.

British Castles

In chapter 4, Bolten Castle and Mary Queen of Scots is mentioned. This referenced captured our attention. The boys wanted to know why a queen was being held as a prisoner in a castle.

This reference went on to seek information about many different castles in England and the British monarchy. We have learned about Bolten Castle, Edinburgh Castle, Cardiff Castle, York Castle, and many more.

It is amazing how one mention of one place in a country, can lead down such a marvellous learning path.

There is also a map of Windsor Castle included in the beginning pages of the eBook for Britfield & the Lost Crown. We have not come across this mention, as of yet, in the book but we are excited to read the adventures of Tom and Sarah at Windsor Castle. We found a documentary about Windsor Castle on Amazon Prime video that we are excited to watch once we reach that part of the adventure.

Mapping

We have always been a fan of using maps when we can.

On our adventure to Casaloma, we used all sorts of maps – from a Toronto street map, the subway map, and even Casaloma had a map of all the different rooms in the estate – including secret tunnels and passageways.

Included in Britfield & the Lost Crown are numerous maps of the locations in the book. There is a map of England, one of London, and many others. The one of Windsor Castle we plan on using when we encounter that part of the book. Being able to track the different locations as Tom and Sarah move throughout the country will be a fun mapping exercise.

Conclusion

We are excited to continue on with this novel study using Britfield & the Lost Crown. The story is enjoyable and our family is really enjoying the discussions and research that is steaming from events in the book.

I love that this book is as entertaining for me, a 34-year-old woman, as it is for my 4 children!

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