Celts [Hardcover]

Hazel Mary Martell (Author)

Book Description

Grade Level: 3 and up | Series: Myths & Civilization

This book offers readers a beautiful blend of history and mythology - providing a new approach to exploring the Celts. This book retells a selection of important myths, using dramatic illustrations and supplementing them with historical and cultural information, including realistic maps and diagrams.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8-Martell has assembled a fact-filled, visually attractive look at the history and customs of the Celtic people. Information is gathered in short paragraphs and arranged under subheadings and headings for easy accessibility. Daily life, crafts, houses, foods, government, and weapons are not only described, but also pictured in full-color drawings and photographs of museum objects and archaeological findings. As an added attraction, transparencies are inserted over architectural drawings that, when lifted, reveal the interiors of fortresses, homes, and burial sites. Martell's What Do We Know about the Celts? (Peter Bedrick, 1993), for a slightly younger age group, contains much of the same information and has a similar format. This new publication is better organized, richer in historical detail, and contains many more drawings, and, of course, the intriguing transparent overlays. It fulfills its purpose of providing easily acquired, visual and textual material for reports.
Shirley Wilton, Ocean County College, Toms River, NJ
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

The catechism-style queries heading the 17 topical spreads here may seem a bit off-putting, but they're an admirably direct approach to information and subjects likely to interest children- -not only concerning ``what'' is known, but how the surviving evidence can be interpreted. On each spread, a brief paragraph addresses the question at hand (``Did the Celts go shopping?...[not] like we do. Instead, they grew their own food...However, luxury goods such as jewelery [sic] were bought...''). Extensively captioned photos and drawings of artifacts and reconstructions amplify the information on crafts and trade, origins and tribal movements, family structure, beliefs, and more. Like a well-crafted exhibit, an inviting introduction that offers a good sampling of objects with real stories to tell, together with lucid explanations of how these can be read (Martell even cautions that contemporary descriptions of Celts ``were written by people who thought their civilizations were better than the Celtic one,'' and gives an egregious example from Julius Caesar). Timeline; glossary; index. (Nonfiction. 8- 11) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 48 pages
• Publisher: Brighter Child (September 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0872265919
• ISBN-13: 978-0872265912
• Product Dimensions: 11.5 x 8.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,872,996 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Remember the Celts, December 1, 2000

By 

"cc1100" (Morris Plains, New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Celts (Hardcover)

This book is just one of many in the Myths and Civilization series. Myths and Civilizations of the Celts is nicely organized, condensing the long history of the Celts into less than fifty pages. The book is divided into sections; each section begins with a fable and is followed by illustrations and two pages describing the different origins, beliefs, legends and societies among the Celts. A brief description of many Celtic stories such as the Legend of Maon, the Tragedy of Cuchulain, and the Tale of Peredur is also provided.

The history of the Celts is rarely studied. Particularly in this day and age when countries are overwhelmed with equality and compensating minorities for the atrocities committed against them. It is essential to learn about all cultural, ethnic, and racially distinct groups, particularly those living within a larger group. Minorities have been subjected to the most abuse and humiliation. It is important not to forget the culture of the majority for the majority has its own traditions, beliefs, and legends essential to its existence. One day the present majority will be a minority.

CC

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy this for the illustrations, August 29, 2011

By 

Bekah (USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Celts (See Through History) (Hardcover)

As an elementary school kid, I checked out this book ( and Robin Place's The Celts) from the library over a dozen times to stare at the illustrations. The illustrations are all drawings in color, very vivid and full of detail and human emotion. Of course it isn't great art--but it sure could set a kid's imagination on fire. There is on illustration of a trader leaving on an expedition, turning back to wave at his family standing by their home. It is full of illustrations like these, that are very easy to relate to. As a 10 year old, the pictures really made me realize history was "real" and that people back then were human just like us.

Actually, I was more inspired by these drawings then by the more glitzy DK Eyewitness series. The Eyewitness series is all photographs of artifacts or dressed up actors standing stiffly with emotionless faces...so it doesn't make history feel alive at all. These illustrations do. The drawings are still stuck in my head, more than a decade later. Also, check out Robin Place's The Celts (MacDonald Educational People of the Past Series), those drawings are even more poignant.