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219 of 222 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Excellent Resource, March 1, 2000
By A Customer
The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia appears to be the updated version of the Kingfisher Illustrated History of the World, which received high accolades from Amazon reviewers and others. I've compared the two books. This "replacement" book is better laid out and has better graphics than its predecessor. The colorful text highlights periods in history from 40,000 B.C. to the present. It is divided chronologically into segments:"The Ancient World" 40,000 BC to 500 BC, and The Classical World, 499 BC - AD 500, Early Middle Ages, 501- 1100, Trade and Empire1601-1707 , Revolution and Independence 1708- 1835, etc. I like that it covers all regions of the world, including African history, and Indian, Asian, South American, Judea, etc, rather than the typical European history we're all used to. The information is broad in each section and includes wars, empires and dynasties, architecture, culture and arts, science and technology, maps, small biographies of important people in those times. I like that the book is chronological and also broad based in its approach. Each reference takes a full page or full two pages, with easy to find headings at the top of the page. There is a time line across the heading of each page so you know where you are in history. There's a nice "ready reference" in the back with quick notations of rulers and popes and the time period they ruled. I highly recommend this book for middle school years and adults who want a cursory but thought-provoking look at history. This book makes you want to delve more deeply into the different time periods. It's a good starting place for beginning your understanding of ancient history and getting a sense of time and place with regard to history. I homeschool and this is a great resource.
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208 of 218 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
An eye-catching disappointment, February 7, 2004
I have recently begun homeschooling my 6th grader, and am using The Well Trained Mind as a curriculum guide. This book was listed as a must-have for a classical education, which is based heavily in literature and history. I must say that when we received the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia, it looked very impressive. It is a hefty volume, with colorful pages and a timeline which runs across the top of the pages. However, after only a few weeks of use, my daughter has come to dread the sight of this book whenever it is time for history lessons. It is very dry reading. The one to two-page spreads for each topic/culture/era have so little valuable content, that there is little opportunity for the spark of interest to be ignited. They have so condensed the information, that it is mostly a list of dates, names, etc. And there are boxes every couple of pages listing the same dates over again. The text is written chronologically, so each time you turn the page a different culture is discussed, and what they were doing during that time period. This concept sounds better on paper than in practical use. While the time periods overlap somewhat, it does tend to jump around a quite bit. The continuity of what should be exciting and intriguing becomes very choppy and disjointed and as a result frustrating and boring. What might be interesting stuff becomes distracting and in some cases irritating when it interrupts another story. For example, the rise and fall of Rome, while severely abridged, may have still interested my child, if it had not been broken up by seven other topics. Huge chunks of time (several centuries)are condensed into a paragraph, or even a sentence or two. Other chunks go unmentioned. For example, the Qin Dynasty in China lasted less than 20 years, and got the same attention as the Celts, who were around for 500 years. The first 400 years of Christianity are covered in the same amount of space. So I am seeing my daughter becoming confused about the significance of these subjects, and not really grasping the "chronological order", despite adding new information daily to the 8-foot timeline we keep on the wall. Also,I am constantly amazed at what the makers of this book did not see as important enough for further discussion. For example, in our studies so far, The Great Wall of China has been depicted in a 1/4 page illustration, but only the date it was begun and a sentence or two on why it was built is listed. Julius Caesar is mentioned briefly, and simply that he was assasinated(!?), and I have yet to find any mention of Cleopatra. Overall, this book might be a good addition to your library just to have around for kids to leaf through, or as a springboard for other reading. It does mention cultures I never learned about in school (i.e.,the Guptas )but is not very useful as a reference tool, as there really is not any in-depth information on very many things. In it's effort to cover all bases in a single volume, Kingfisher fails to teach children what history really is -- a really great story.
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102 of 105 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Very disappointed, March 24, 2002
By A Customer
I, too, bought this book based on recommendations for the original that is now out of print. I found many typos, especially in the last 50 pages of the book. It's as though the publisher didn't even use a spell check! I also found several contradictions in their own facts, dates that were confused etc. I liked the layout and I believe there are several subjects that are addressed well, but I would suggest that any homeschooling parent read ahead in order to omit the discrepancies found.
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