Jim Hodges Productions A Knight of the White Cross Review

For years I have heard about Jim Hodges Productions and his enormous audio recordings and I have wanted to introduce these classical unabridged audiobooks to my children. Now that my children are old enough to actually appreciate these wonderful family friendly audiobooks I was excited when a review came available for the TOS Crew. It was hard to choose but, in the end the kids and I decided on A Knight of the White Cross (1470-1480) by G.A. Henty ($25.00). I received a physical copy of a MP3 CD as well as a Study Guide in a PDF format($12.00). You can also download these audiobooks for $18.00 and the Study Guides to accompany the audiobook.

A Knight of the White Cross (1470-1480) is most likely to appeal to older kids around 10 and up. However, my almost 9 year old son had no problem listening to this audiobook.

These audio recordings are MP3 CDs and will not play on a regular CD player. They can be played on a computer or a MP3 player.

Another wonderful feature is that these audiobooks are unabridged version. I never really appreciated unabridged books until my son started to read fluently. With an unabridged version your child can listen to the book while following along with a physical book. I didn’t do this with this particular book but, I felt it was worth sharing as I think it can really enhance your child’s education.

A Knight of the White Cross (1470-1480) is a running time of 12 hours and 49 minutes. There are 23 chapters in this audiobook.

This story begins during the War of the Roses in England. You will meet Gervaise Tresham who is a young man dedicated to God and joins the Knights of St. John in Rhodes. Gervaise stumbles upon a plot that bring him honor and he is then knighted. Gervaise will go into many battles and on many adventures. Then he faces the most difficult battle yet,  he falls in love with a woman and wants to wed her. For most men that is not an issue but Gervaise is a man of honor and have sworn a vow of chastity. This is full of a lot of action once the background is set and the plot gets deeper. I don’t want to give away too much so you will just have to listen to the story yourself.

Study Guide for A Knight of the White Cross (1470-1480)

The Study Guide for A Knight of the White Cross (1470-1480) covers all 23 chapters along with 4 quizzes. Included is an answer key. Each chapter section starts out with the vocabulary words which are alphabetically organized rather than the order they appear in the chapter. You have a space to copy the meaning of the word after you look it up in a dictionary. The definition is not included in the study guide so you will need a dictionary.

Next are questions about the story which also gives you a place to record your answers. The questions are set up like a reading comprehension for the audiobook. Then added activities like locating places on a map, lapbook activities, making a coat of arms, or going online for and activity. There is lots of variety to fit anyone’s learning style.

How did I use, “A Knight of the White Cross” in my homeschool?

My family has recently been diving into some of G.A. Henty books and this was a real treat for my knight loving and adventure seeking kids. My family loves history and this was very interesting for my family.

We listened to the majority of this at the house and also while driving back and forth in various car trips. Since my son is still young and writing is not done with too much enthusiasm we did it orally. My 11 year old has learning disabilities and arthritis so I didn’t require her to do any writing. I would read the questions out loud after we finished the chapter and we would go over the vocabulary words that the kids didn’t know. As far as the activities we did just the mapping as my kids enjoy geography. I didn’t do the lapbook activities or other components of the study guide.

I think adding the Study Guide to the audiobooks makes it a complete study unit. It covers everything from language arts, handwriting, art, history, and geography.

My family enjoyed this and I will be adding more audiobooks into our homeschool.

Other TOS Crew membership reviewed different G.A. Henty audiobooks so see what they thought of their particular adventure.