Dana Meachen Rau’s short life story for 8 year olds, about a teenage bride who became Queen of France and lost everything, is called Who Was Marie Antoinette?<\/p>\n
It starts on the day she leaves home. She’s fifteen, a princess of Austria, travelling to France in a jewelled coach to marry a boy she’s never met. At the border she has to take off every scrap of Austrian clothing. She isn’t even allowed to bring her pug, Mops!<\/p>\n
From there it follows her whole life, in order, in short chapters.<\/p>\n
The best bits are the details children love. At Versailles, crowds of people come to watch her get dressed in the morning. Her hairstyles can tower three feet high, with ships and vegetables in them (and, yes, bugs and lice living underneath). When her son is born, a brownish-green colour becomes the height of fashion. Its name means “the dauphin’s poop”.<\/p>\n
Extra facts pop up along the way, on Mozart (who apparently wanted to marry her when they were both six), on the Hall of Mirrors and on how to get dressed like a queen. There’s a timeline at the back too.<\/p>\n
It’s fair to her. It shows a lonely girl with a strict mum watching her every move, as well as a queen who spent a fortune on parties while people starved. It even explains that “let them eat cake” was a rumour she never actually said. It’s a great way into how a revolution happens and why people got so angry.<\/p>\n
Be ready for the last chapters, though. The French Revolution is told plainly and it doesn’t stop at the palace gates. A mob carries the heads of two bodyguards on spikes, the king and then Marie Antoinette are executed by guillotine, and her little boy dies in prison at nine. None of it is gory, but it is all there.<\/p>\n
A child who’s frightened by death might want you close by for those pages. A reader who loves true stories with a bit of horror in them will probably be gripped (and will have questions for you at bedtime).<\/p>\n
If they want another life from the same series, try Who Was Ida B Wells? It follows a girl born enslaved in Mississippi who read the newspaper aloud to her dad’s friends and wanted to do something about the unfairness she saw.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dana Meachen Rau’s short life story for 8 year olds, about a teenage bride who became Queen of France and lost everything, is called Who Was Marie Antoinette? It starts on the day she leaves home. She’s fifteen, a princess of Austria, travelling to France in a jewelled coach to marry a boy she’s never […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12546,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":9735,"lr_next_read_anchor":"Who Was Ida B Wells","lr_seo_hook":"From towering hairdos at Versailles to the French Revolution."},"book_tag":[20],"age_group":[26],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[224],"class_list":["post-9736","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-real-life-books","age_group-books-for-8-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-dana-meachen-rau"],"yoast_title":"Who Was Marie Antoinette? by Dana Meachen Rau | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"From towering hairdos at Versailles to the French Revolution. For ages 8+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n