Picture That: Knights & Castles [Hardcover]

Alex Martin (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up | Series: Picture That

The popular Picture That! series features fine-art reproductions to explore history! These books are favorites of art and history lovers alike. High quality art reproductions with sidebars and historical info and spotlights on details of paintings are used to impart information in an engaging and browsable format. This book is as at home on a coffee table as it is on a library shelf.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Reviewed with Ellen Galford's The Trail West.

Gr. 5-8. For years, scholars have examined old paintings seeking to learn more about historical times and places. These books from the Picture That series invite students to do the same, using pictures that represent late medieval life in Europe and nineteenth-century western expansion in the U.S. With a spacious format and excellent reproduction of art, the books introduce the paintings and talk about what they reveal before zooming in on distinctive details, which are enlarged and discussed in captions. In Knights, the first double-page spread of the section "On the Battlefield" discusses Paolo Uccello's painting The Battle of San Romano; the second spread focuses on small sections of the painting illustrating fifteenth-century armor, the crossbow, the mace, the battle horse, and hand-to-hand fighting. In The Trail West, the section called "A Sacred Festival" presents Kiowa artist Silver Horn's The Camp Circle--Measuring the Pole, followed by a spread explaining five details from the picture. Appendixes include a glossary, a time line, and lists of books and Internet sites. Recommended particularly for visual learners. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Alex Martin is a prolific writer of both fiction and nonfiction works. His adult novel The General Interruptor won the Betty Trask Prize in 1988, and he has written several children's novels including Zeus Perkins, Time Traveller (Hodder, 1998). He has selected and edited various fiction collections, including Modern Plays and Modern Novels (Prentice Hall/Phoenix 1995). His nonfiction books include Greece (Simple Guides, 1995) and Daily Life in the Holy Land at the Time of Jesus (Reader's Digest 1995).

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 64 pages
• Publisher: Cooper Square Publishing Llc (October 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587284413
• ISBN-13: 978-1587284410
• Product Dimensions: 11.5 x 9.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,628,395 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #50 in Books > Children's Books > History > Renaissance

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautifully Illustrated Overview of the Middle Ages, June 19, 2005

By 

CanadianMother (Ontario) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Picture That: Knights & Castles (Hardcover)

The title of this book, Knights and Castles, is a little bit misleading, for the contents of the book cover so much more than merely that. The author does write about what it meant to be a knight and live in a castle, but he also covers many aspects of life in Middle Ages Europe (such as life on a farm, games children played, banquets and jousts)in a way that is interesting and easily accessible to young people.

Knights and Castles is one of the "Picture That!" series by Two-Can Press. I love the idea behind this series: the books are illustrated not with modern artist's drawings or photographs of artifacts, but with actual art from the time period. In this case the book is filled with beautiful, detailed paintings from throughout the Middle Ages. Each painting offers fascinating glimpes into another time if attention is paid to the details within.

Books on the Middle Ages abound for young readers, but this one is one of the best. Even as an adult I enjoyed reading it (and looking at the pictures!) immensely. Highly recommended.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent resource!, February 25, 2008

By 

Mingo (Rural Indiana, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Picture That: Knights & Castles (Hardcover)

I used this book as an introduction to the middle ages for our 7.5 year old homeschooled daughter. She couldn't get enough of poring over the real art images and descriptions.

Making art relevant to children helps make it accessible to them. Seeing images from history created "in the moment" (give or take) makes the art come alive and presents history in an entirely new light. It also encourages children to look at other works of art more critically, to ask questions about it (rather than passively view it) and consider what art can tell us about history.

This was our first look at this series, but my daughter has requested more. I highly recommend this book!