Customer Reviews

Stories From The Silk Road

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4 star:		(1)
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This has been a favorite for our kids from about kindergarten on up, and perhaps even a bit earlier. In Bearfoot Book style, this book includes a full curriculum of art, geography, religion and history in the form of plain old good, engaging stories. The silk road slinks from China through the deserts of Central Asia and into the Middle East, and in this age when so much new history is being written in Central Asia and the Middle East the stories and the accompanying discussions will really help orient your kids to the broader world.

Among the stories that have struck our kids the most are "Monkey and the River Dragon", which should keep the kids laughing through the whole story, and "The Bride and the Horse's head", a story with more pathos and tragedy.

The art in this book particularly stands out, even with the high standards usually set by Barefoot Books, and the maps are a particularly colorful delight. Among kids books, this is one of the better selections when you are reading to children that span all the elementary school grades, as it has something of interest for the older kids as well as the younger ones.

This book has a series of tales from the Silk Road countries - China, Uzbekistan, Kirghizstan, and Afghanistan. They are easy to read and interesting. I have Afghan students and recently saw the Afghan treasures show at the National Gallery. This book goes along well with a teacher's unit on this area of the world. We don't teach much about Central Asia and I think we often don't much about it. This is a book that gives the area more life and interest in Central Asia.

Nice long stories, none of which I've read elsewhere, kept my 7 year old glued by my side. We read it in two sittings, and by the end, he wanted me to go back and reread the "introductions", as he paid attention to the stories only, at first. Good mix with any of the similarly-leveled Marco Polo books. Barefoot Books comes through again. Some of the best stories I've read kiddo this year.