It's
Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
at
at
and #IMWAYR day
at
I noticed that our sixth grade social studies classes are now called Regions and Peoples of the Eastern Hemisphere, so I wonder if seventh grade will be changing anytime soon. For now, the curriculum includes ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, as well as the Renaissance. Since I taught Latin, I always look forward to when students have projects on ancient Rome. Here are some books you might want to look at if you share my interest in these topics.
Magical Museum: Ancient Egypt
August 06, 2024 by Albatros Media
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central
Opening this book awakens a sacred scarab and unleashes him on a museum of ancient Egypt. Never fear, for a mummified cat has also come to life, and promises to help the reader catch the scarab, encountering a lot of information about this fascinating ancient culture in the meantime. This starts with an explanation of the mummification process, which is kept brief and factual, although it does discuss the fact that people's internal organs were taken out and stored in canopic jars. Older elementary students will love the details, but it might be a bit much for younger ones. There's a nice array of mummies shown, with brief information about their dates and roles. Sarcophagi and tombs are also covered, and I even learned a few things, like the fact that before pyramids, people were laid to rest in smaller tombs called mastabas. I've studied the ancient world quite a bit, so if I learn something from a book, it's got to be packed with information!
I was expecting that this book would just talk about the pyramid and the mummy, but we also get to follow the scarab and cat into the museum cinema, and get quite a complete look at life in Egpyt as well! It discusses they ways that both the wealthy and the not so wealthy went about their days, and even has a brief discussion on the rights and roles of women. Furniture, art, food, fun and games, and clothing and makeup all are covered; it's not enough information for a school project on one of the smaller aspects of culture, but certainly has enough for a general report! I liked that there was both a table of contents as well as an index at the end of the book.
While the cat and the scarab (as well as a cadre of rats making snarky remarks in the footnotes) might seem a little goofy, they are an easy way to get younger readers interested in history. I would have adored this as a child, and certainly would have read and reread this book. It would also be a good accompaniment to some of the middle grade fictional tales set in ancient Egypt, like Moss' Pharoah's Secret, Napoli's Lights on the Nile, and Rubalcaba's The Wadjet Eye, which starts with the main character mummifying his mother. Magical Museum would be a great way to understand the starting chapters in that story.
The illustrations are very helpful, and do a good job of showing what the artifacts looked like, as well as the settings in which they were found and used. There are funny touches, like the mummified cat and the rats, who show up in unusual places, but in general, there is a real effort to replicate the museum setting and to use the illustrations in an informative way.
In my state, ancient Egypt is studied in the sixth grade social studies curriculum, but it's never too early to learn about different places in the world and their history. Shelve this book in the 932's (the Dewey Decimal System number for Egypt up to 640!) along with Berger's The Unofficial Guide to the Ancient Egyptian Afterlife, England's Mummies Unwrapped, or Honovich's 1,000 Facts About Ancient Egypt. For older readers who want more information, pick up Fleming's excellent The Curse of the Mummy: Uncovering Tutankhamun's Tomb, which does a great job of showing that there really WASN'T a curse!
Marx, Jonny and Prabhat, Chaaya (illustrator).
August 06, 2024 by Albatros Media
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central
Opening this book awakens a sacred scarab and unleashes him on a museum of ancient Egypt. Never fear, for a mummified cat has also come to life, and promises to help the reader catch the scarab, encountering a lot of information about this fascinating ancient culture in the meantime. This starts with an explanation of the mummification process, which is kept brief and factual, although it does discuss the fact that people's internal organs were taken out and stored in canopic jars. Older elementary students will love the details, but it might be a bit much for younger ones. There's a nice array of mummies shown, with brief information about their dates and roles. Sarcophagi and tombs are also covered, and I even learned a few things, like the fact that before pyramids, people were laid to rest in smaller tombs called mastabas. I've studied the ancient world quite a bit, so if I learn something from a book, it's got to be packed with information!
I was expecting that this book would just talk about the pyramid and the mummy, but we also get to follow the scarab and cat into the museum cinema, and get quite a complete look at life in Egpyt as well! It discusses they ways that both the wealthy and the not so wealthy went about their days, and even has a brief discussion on the rights and roles of women. Furniture, art, food, fun and games, and clothing and makeup all are covered; it's not enough information for a school project on one of the smaller aspects of culture, but certainly has enough for a general report! I liked that there was both a table of contents as well as an index at the end of the book.
While the cat and the scarab (as well as a cadre of rats making snarky remarks in the footnotes) might seem a little goofy, they are an easy way to get younger readers interested in history. I would have adored this as a child, and certainly would have read and reread this book. It would also be a good accompaniment to some of the middle grade fictional tales set in ancient Egypt, like Moss' Pharoah's Secret, Napoli's Lights on the Nile, and Rubalcaba's The Wadjet Eye, which starts with the main character mummifying his mother. Magical Museum would be a great way to understand the starting chapters in that story.
The illustrations are very helpful, and do a good job of showing what the artifacts looked like, as well as the settings in which they were found and used. There are funny touches, like the mummified cat and the rats, who show up in unusual places, but in general, there is a real effort to replicate the museum setting and to use the illustrations in an informative way.
In my state, ancient Egypt is studied in the sixth grade social studies curriculum, but it's never too early to learn about different places in the world and their history. Shelve this book in the 932's (the Dewey Decimal System number for Egypt up to 640!) along with Berger's The Unofficial Guide to the Ancient Egyptian Afterlife, England's Mummies Unwrapped, or Honovich's 1,000 Facts About Ancient Egypt. For older readers who want more information, pick up Fleming's excellent The Curse of the Mummy: Uncovering Tutankhamun's Tomb, which does a great job of showing that there really WASN'T a curse!
Hide and Seek History: Ancient Greece
April 16, 2024 by 360 Degrees
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central
Young readers are fascinated by Ancient Greece and Rome once they are introduced to it; look at the success o f the 2005 The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, and all of the other books that have come out since. I was a Latin teacher many years ago, and my students loved to learn about the history of ancient civilizations as well as the language. It's not a surprise that this superb book was first published in Great Britain; if you want some excellent deep dives into Greece and Rome, there are a lot of fantastic titles published by the British Museum, and I even managed to score a CD of Deary's The Rotten Romans that came in a box of Frosties cereal when I visited London back in 2000.
This is a gorgeous book crammed with lots of facts, and the lift a flap format is constantly fascinating. This is more of an introduction that a systematic investigation of ancient culture, and centers nicely on the archaeology and what various finds have told us about the Greeks as well as mythology. One of my favorite pages was the Labors of Hercules, arranged rather like a clock, with a flap for each one of the tasks he completed. There's a nice spread on "Ancient Greek Geeks" which covers all of the various scholarly pursuits like literature, astronomy, math, zoology, and philosophy, and also one on war and combat. This finishes with an exploration of daily life that gives an updated view of slavery, as well as a timeline.
I was impressed with the depth of scholarship on the facts. The pages on archaeology included a brief biography of Spyridon Marinatos; I studied with his daughter, Nanno, who lead tours of various archaeological sites for some of my college classes when I lived in Athens. The fact that Homer might not have been one person is addressed, and this gets double bonus points for mentioning that Minoan bull jumping, widely depicted in the art on Crete, was probably not an actual thing.
Marx' illustrations have a lot of tradional red, black, and tan in them (think red figure and black figure pottery), but also have some lovely blues and violets that made me think of the Disney Hercules movie. There are a lot of flaps, sometimes two deep, that will entice children to spend a lot of time looking through this book. Some of these were a little hard to open; I would recommend going through the book with a think but blunt letter openener and opening all of the flaps before giving it to any children, to cut down on frustration as well as damage.
There are not a lot of picture books about Ancient Greece, and this would be fun for younger readers to page through, although the reading level is more suited to older children. If you need more than one book on the topic, I'd also look at Ancient Greece for Kids (Unfolding the Past, 2), DK's Eyewitness: Ancient Greeks, and (for readers who want more information and fewer pictures), The Thrifty Guide to Ancient Greece: A Handbook for Time Travelers by Stokes and Bonet.
Ruzicka, Oldrich and Tuma, Tomas (illus.) Ancient Rome for Kids
June 04, 2024 by Albatros Media
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central
It is always more fun to fold out pages than just turn them, and this clever arrangement is put to good use in this fact packed overview of Ancient Rome. Starting with a plain map and basic history, we can fold the page up and find out more about food, the names of the Seven Hills, and other facts. Other pages include an exploration of the Roman Republic, with a timeline, sidebars about murex and different kinds of clothing, which folds up to have a nice discussion of architecture. The pages about the Roman Empire have various dignitaries like Caesar, as well as more information about the way society was structured. I really liked the map and the many different architectural innovations for which the Romans were responsible. The Roman military gets a lot of coverage, as do gladiators, which will be a huge selling point for young history geeks.
April 16, 2024 by 360 Degrees
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central
Young readers are fascinated by Ancient Greece and Rome once they are introduced to it; look at the success o f the 2005 The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, and all of the other books that have come out since. I was a Latin teacher many years ago, and my students loved to learn about the history of ancient civilizations as well as the language. It's not a surprise that this superb book was first published in Great Britain; if you want some excellent deep dives into Greece and Rome, there are a lot of fantastic titles published by the British Museum, and I even managed to score a CD of Deary's The Rotten Romans that came in a box of Frosties cereal when I visited London back in 2000.
This is a gorgeous book crammed with lots of facts, and the lift a flap format is constantly fascinating. This is more of an introduction that a systematic investigation of ancient culture, and centers nicely on the archaeology and what various finds have told us about the Greeks as well as mythology. One of my favorite pages was the Labors of Hercules, arranged rather like a clock, with a flap for each one of the tasks he completed. There's a nice spread on "Ancient Greek Geeks" which covers all of the various scholarly pursuits like literature, astronomy, math, zoology, and philosophy, and also one on war and combat. This finishes with an exploration of daily life that gives an updated view of slavery, as well as a timeline.
I was impressed with the depth of scholarship on the facts. The pages on archaeology included a brief biography of Spyridon Marinatos; I studied with his daughter, Nanno, who lead tours of various archaeological sites for some of my college classes when I lived in Athens. The fact that Homer might not have been one person is addressed, and this gets double bonus points for mentioning that Minoan bull jumping, widely depicted in the art on Crete, was probably not an actual thing.
Marx' illustrations have a lot of tradional red, black, and tan in them (think red figure and black figure pottery), but also have some lovely blues and violets that made me think of the Disney Hercules movie. There are a lot of flaps, sometimes two deep, that will entice children to spend a lot of time looking through this book. Some of these were a little hard to open; I would recommend going through the book with a think but blunt letter openener and opening all of the flaps before giving it to any children, to cut down on frustration as well as damage.
There are not a lot of picture books about Ancient Greece, and this would be fun for younger readers to page through, although the reading level is more suited to older children. If you need more than one book on the topic, I'd also look at Ancient Greece for Kids (Unfolding the Past, 2), DK's Eyewitness: Ancient Greeks, and (for readers who want more information and fewer pictures), The Thrifty Guide to Ancient Greece: A Handbook for Time Travelers by Stokes and Bonet.
June 04, 2024 by Albatros Media
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central
It is always more fun to fold out pages than just turn them, and this clever arrangement is put to good use in this fact packed overview of Ancient Rome. Starting with a plain map and basic history, we can fold the page up and find out more about food, the names of the Seven Hills, and other facts. Other pages include an exploration of the Roman Republic, with a timeline, sidebars about murex and different kinds of clothing, which folds up to have a nice discussion of architecture. The pages about the Roman Empire have various dignitaries like Caesar, as well as more information about the way society was structured. I really liked the map and the many different architectural innovations for which the Romans were responsible. The Roman military gets a lot of coverage, as do gladiators, which will be a huge selling point for young history geeks.
This has lots of information, and it's best to just let it wash over you, rather than looking for a systematic representation of all facets of Roman culture broken down into neat chapters. There are a lot of books like that, but they aren't nearly as interesting.
This nonfiction book is beautifully illustrated and offers a wide array of random facts about Ancient Rome. It would be a good way to get a young reader interested in this topic, and there is also a similar book about Ancient Greece and Egypt. There isn't an index, so it wouldn't be all that useful for research, but it is a fantastic book to introduce fun facts about Ancient Rome to young readers.
This nonfiction book is beautifully illustrated and offers a wide array of random facts about Ancient Rome. It would be a good way to get a young reader interested in this topic, and there is also a similar book about Ancient Greece and Egypt. There isn't an index, so it wouldn't be all that useful for research, but it is a fantastic book to introduce fun facts about Ancient Rome to young readers.
All three books sound really, great for kids and tbh for adults who don't know about these times! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThose all sound like great books, of the sort that might have gotten some attention around our house a couple of decades back when the kids were little!
ReplyDeleteI love books about Rome and haven't read any of these. More books to add to my pile! Thanks for featuring these on this week's MMGM.
ReplyDelete