Customer Reviews

The Sumerians (The Cradle of Civilization)

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While there are not many books on Sumeria for this age group, I found this one lacking. The editorial review from Horn book is somewhat misleading, I believe. This particular book is about the Sumerians. The Assyrians and Babylonians are covered in two other books!

There are 14 illustrations including one map, photos of artifacts, and photos of present day sites related to the Sumerians. Compared with other publishers like Kingfisher, Dorling-Kindersley, etc., I would not say there were detailed illustrations in this book. The photos are of good quality, yet we have seen most of these in other sources. I also thought that the Sumerian ziggurats from ancient times were thought to have been square rather than the round style pictured in this book.

The information about the Sumerian inventions of the wheel and time is given in two small paragraphs on two pages--not much detail! There is other information about their way of life that is interesting.

The type is slightly larger with large space between lines and wide margins. It is easy on the eyes for children to read.

The text on the first five pages in the three Landau books is virtually the same. The only major difference is the map is changed for whichever topic--Sumerians, Assyrians, or Babylonians--is being covered. The map is well done, however, not all locations are shown. While Babylonia conquered Sumer, and Babylon is mentioned in the text, it is not shown on the map in the Sumerians book.

Paging starts on page 9, text through page 52, timeline text of Important Dates pp. 53-54 (not facing pages), Notes p. 55 (bibliography?), Glossary pp. 57-58 (no pronunciation information though), Further Reading pp. 59-60, and Index pp. 61-63 (nice touch). So for a 64-page book there is only 43 pp. of text, and the format is smaller than usual, too.

This means there is not a lot of detail in any of the information. The history necessarily skips a lot. Because these cultures do interact with each other, I think it might have been better to publish a combined text.

My children (ages 4-13) did listen to me read this to them, but it was not written in a very interesting style. Because of the lack of detail covered, I think this book would be better if read to the 6-9 age group. Or read by them, if they can read well enough!

I agree with the other reviewer that this book was disappointing. I didn't have a negative view of it exactly, but it is definitely not as good as Jane SHuter's "The Sumerians" or other works on Ancient Mesopotamia.

I also agree that the formatting was probably the worst aspect of the text. You think you're picking up a late grammar stage book, but the text is so thick that a third grader really can't keep at it. The font is a good size and the real life photography on each page is great (especially the modern day ziggurat). But the chapters just go on and on with no headings. My son who loves this subject did not stick with the book, and I wasn't up to reading it aloud.

I am not saying that fancy formatting makes a book worth it in itself, but this one needs some. It also only has four chapters: In the Beginning, as Sumer grew, Writing/Education/Law, and Sumer at Work. Somehow something just makes it not come together.

ALthough if you like some of the older authors like Lila Perl, who also doesn't format much, with more modern day photos than kid-friendly ones, this wouldn't be a bad addition. I think I would rent it rather than purchase it though, and while it is simple, keep it to children older than 10.