Customer Reviews

Ancient World (Illustrated World History)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is one of the best around for teaching ancient history to all ages! The colorful pictures, and detailed, yet short explanations hold a child's interest. There is enough information for an older child to learn and retain his new knowledge. The pictures are wonderful, which further the beauty of this book!

The illustations are simply beautiful in this 288+ book---WELL WORTH every cent! Though the writing at time can be challenging, and meant for the young adult reader, it's an absoulte must for any person interested in ancient civiliztions. After reading this text you will be an expert from Rome to Greece to China!

Awesome book for all ages, the pictures are great. There is so much information,yet it is easy to follow and understand. It is well worth the money, and much more interesting than the history books in schools. This is a book you wished you could have had to learn with when you were in school.

We returned this item after browsing it and considering it for our 4- and 6-year-olds. We had two main disappointments: First, we thought there were too many pictures in relation to the rather spotty text. Virtually all of the pictures are "cartoonish" hand-drawn illustrations rather than photographs. Yes, the pictures attracted our childrens' attention immediately, but we were wanting to teach them the ideas and themes of history, not just have them attracted by cartoons. And very quickly our six year old focused in on the nudity, asking us what was that unusual large "thumb" sticking straight out of the man--which was actually the erect penis of a "fertility god" representation. A previous reviewer wrote "Much prefer this to Usborne's World History which has more nudity than I can allow my children." Well, that picture and the several others drawings of nude humans (frontal male and female nudity in the "cartoons") is more of a distraction and problem than we felt our young children needed when trying to learn history. We are much happier with the Kingfisher books we obtained, which focus more on TEXT and IDEAS and relatively less on the cartooniness. They also feature no nudity. What's the point of including nudity and references to reproductive anatomy, for young children? More appropriate for older children, but by then the "cartoons" would probably look like such.

This book consists of three parts: Early Civilizations, The Greeks, and The Romans. The first focuses mainly on Egypt, though it touches on others such as the Assyrians and Babylonians.

The strength of the book is the lavish illustration. The drawings are detailed and brightly colored and are intended to convey the realism of what is being portrayed. The book is a survey and, of necessity, only gives slight coverage to many important topics. That being said, it is a good survey and covers a great deal for a book targeted at this age group.

Any concerns over undue nudity are unfounded. There is a pictorial representation of a stylized fertility god Min along with more than two dozen other Egyptian gods. It does have a phallus as might be expected, but is in the Egyptian style. Elsewhere, the Minoan women are represented with bare [...], as one would see on almost any fresco from the period containing a depiction of women. That's about it.

I child will be confronted with depictions of nudity if they travel to any museum with ancient artifacts in their collection. Fear of the reality of this aspect of our historical past is the only thing that might prevent one from buying this book on that basis.

It is a shame that it does not seem to be in print any longer.

Love the pictures and the write-ups. Much prefer this to Usborne's World History which has more nudity than I can allow my children.