Customer Reviews

DK Discoveries: Cleopatra: Queen of Kings

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4 star:		(1)
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This is a fact-bite-like presentation of the life of the famous queen. The bits are compelling, but they fail to link together to give a reader much of an idea of what Cleopatra was really like, and the speculations upon motivations come out rather dry. Human motivations and the personal story is lost in the organization, and since that is usually what makes a biography so fascinating, it is unfortunate. The DK Eyewitness-eque format works best for the thematic arrangement of information, not a narrative of a life. Still, it was fairly interesting reading (if disjointed), and it was put together attractively.

Here are some alternatives:

Beautifully illustrated biography for the same roughly the age group:
Cleopatra by Diane Stanley

For slightly older readers, a humorous but very compelling biography:
Cleopatra and Her Asp by Margaret Simpson

Cleopatra is one of the most famous women to ever grace the planet. At 14 she watched her father flee for his life and saw people had suffered under the cruelty of her father. She realized her family was at war with the people it ruled.

As Ptolemy XII's oldest surviving child, she would become queen when he died. To protect herself, she made friends with powerful courtiers and prepared herself for government by learning Egyptian and used religion to support her claim to the throne.

Through this book you will learn how Cleopatra used her charm and intelligence to remain queen. You will see how she hoped to make Egypt the successful empire it had been when the first Ptolemies ruled almost 300 years before.

The story gets rather interesting when Antony is disgraced after the Battle of Actium and Cleopatra is afraid of his anger. She locks herself in her mausoleum and sends him a message saying she is dead. In despair, Antony stabs himself and then dies in her arms. Within a few weeks of Antony's suicide Cleopatra also died

There are also beautiful pictures of imaginary fantasy scenes by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, photographs of locations mentioned in the stories and information on plays and movies inspired by Cleopatra's life. This is richly illustrated and contains many fascinating facts about her life and the men she loved.

~The Rebecca Review

When writing a history book for young children there is always a delicate balance of just how much detail to include. If a writer includes too much detail, a young child may not follow the story because they do not understand the greater historical context. On the other hand, not enough detail and an interesting story becomes boring and meaningless. Fortunately, "Cleopatra: Queen of Kings" hits this delicate balance perfectly. Fiona MacDonald is one of the stawarts of children's historical books. She has published literally hundreds of books. Cleopatra's love affairs with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony are well known and MacDonald does a first rate job of re-telling them in an age appropriate manner. My only complaint with this book are the lackluster illustrations that accompany the book. It is surprising for a DK book to do such a mediocre job. Be sure to check out the DK Discovery Series books on Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great. Interestingly, both those books have fantastic illustrations and no so good narrative text.

I love this book, it give you lots of info about Cleopatra and it's beautifully illustrated.