From School Library Journal
Grade 3-6-This informative picture book introduces youngsters to history through 11 fictitious children, each living in a different period. Their stories are told on the eve of each century from 1000 to 2000. For each child, a first-person, day-in-the-life account accompanies a brief list of facts about that particular time. For example, readers meet a 10-year-old peasant boy in the year 1000 and discover that during his lifetime books were rare, many children died before their seventh birthday, and England was called Angle-land. The many full- and three-quarter page watercolor and colored-pencil illustrations vividly reflect each child's life and provide additional information about the period depicted. Detailed borders add decorative touches. An excellent list for further reading is included. A fine resource to add to any social studies or history curriculum and a delightful and timely choice as the year 2000 approaches.
Susan Knell, Pittsburgh State University, Pittsburgh, Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Gr. 3^-5, younger for reading aloud. With the millennium fast approaching, this is a perfect time for looking back. And that's exactly what this book does, and in a way that children can understand and will respond to. The book is oversize, and each two-page spread has a list of facts and a first-person narrative that introduces a child living in Great Britain at the beginning of each century between A.D. 1000 and 1600 and in America beginning in 1700 and through the year 2000. For instance, the first child we meet is John, a 10-year-old peasant boy living in Nottingwood: "My family works the land six days a week and gives our lord a portion of the crops. Our lord owns furs, jewelry, silver coins, and one book . . . I own only the clothes on my back." The facts include information about the rarity of books and that the New Year begins on March 25. What makes this book so appealing--and gives it such a cohesive feeling, despite the time span covered--is its design. Each spread looks into the home of the child, rather like looking inside a doll house. Eleanor, a nine-year-old in the year 1100, lives in a nunnery, and the pictures depict different rooms in the nunnery. The art shows the nuns and the girl at prayer, doing chores, and in a tower window. Each spread is decorative as well as informative and invitingly bordered with a design of the era. An enlightening preface and author's note explain more about life in other times, calendars, and dating; an extensive bibliography is appended. Teachers and librarians will find lots of uses for this; kids will just like poring over it
Ilene Cooper
