Queen Victoria’s Bathing Machine by Gloria Whelan & illustrated by Nancy Carpenter

 


Queen Victoria’s Bathing Machine by Gloria Whelan & illustrated by Nancy Carpenter


  • Historical Fiction

  • Grades: Kindergarten - 3rd

  • Awards: None 


Summary:

Queen Victoria’s Bathing Machine is a book about a queen who wants to go for a swim in the ocean. The queen’s lady in waiting informs her that it would be preposterous to consider showing more than her hands and her face. Prince Albert devises a way to help Queen Victoria get to the ocean without anyone seeing her, but Queen Victoria fears his catapult idea will fry her to a crisp. Then, Prince Albert has a better idea and spends time devising and building Queen Victoria a bathing machine. This machine allows Queen Victoria to change and swim in the ocean without being seen except by two sailors who thought she was a flatboat or a skiff. At the end of the story, Queen Victoria returns happily to her prince because she does not know of the sailors so she thinks the bathing machine was a grand success. 


Evaluation:

I think Queen Victoria’s Bathing Machine would be a fun and exciting book to use in my classroom. This book would enhance the students’ understanding of past events by building historical awareness about queens and proper etiquette on the Isle of Wight, England. Queen Victoria’s Bathing Machine takes place in an authentic setting and contains characters based on real historical figures which are important criteria for historical fiction books. This particular story contains characters that display an ingenious and innovative solution to a problem. Queen Victoria’s Bathing Machine would be an appropriate book to use in a unit on multiple genres and the elements of drama (characters, drama, and setting) or on public officials and government.




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