An entertaining introduction to ancient Rome with kid-friendly humor that may make those convinced that history is boring...
Published by Time Corp in the year 2163, this guidebook contains all the vital information needed for the intrepid traveler wishing to go back 2,100 years and partake of gladiatorial matches, Roman legions battling barbarian hordes, and a fight to the death between two captive armies at the Circus Maximus.
Depending on which Time Corp package is chosen, one can watch Cicero’s head get chopped off and displayed in the Forum or enjoy a weekend retreat in Pompeii before seeing it incinerated by a volcano. Accommodations are rated on availability of such amenities as horse parking and bales of hay for donkeys. Crassus, Hannibal, and Spartacus are recommended as interesting lunch companions. The best vantage points for witnessing Julius Caesar’s assassination are cited. There is practical advice on how to avoid being poisoned, beheaded, or torn apart by an angry mob. Factual information embedded in the jokey fictional narrative, often in sidebars, offers some interesting insights into the culture, economics, fashion, history, law, and politics of ancient Rome, but most of the information imparted tends toward the sensational. Among the historical figures introduced are Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Mark Antony, and Pompey. Amplifying the conceit are ratings pages for the various attractions and accommodations; the Vesuvius Inn does not accept food for barter but does accept plunder, while reviewers of the Coliseum complain of insufficient violence.
An entertaining introduction to ancient Rome with kid-friendly humor that may make those convinced that history is boring reconsider. (bibliography) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Jan. 30, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-451-47960-0
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 29, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Part of Sobol’s Traveling Photographer series, this useful introduction to a famous tourist destination has unexpected child...
A photographer explores the ancient Cambodian temple and modern Siem Reap looking for odd angles, surprises and reflections of today's world in the ancient carvings.
As promised, except for a few traditional postcard images, these photographs are unusual and often feature the children who sell fruit and souvenirs at the monument gates and play among the 1,000-year-old ruins. The centerpiece is a photo album of modern Cambodian life with accompanying images of ancient carvings showing similar activities. Sobol weaves a brief explanation of the Khmer Empire and their ruined temple complex into his travelogue. He visits a dance studio, where he sees students practicing traditional gestures just like those of dancers on the temple walls, and a school where youngsters learn English. At the end, these children lead Sobol past the ancient trees and stone rubble in Ta Prohm to a surprising carving, their favorite. While not quite the secret Sobol portrays, since photographs of this curious creature have been available on the Web for several years, this image is sure to appeal to child readers as much as it does to visitors.
Part of Sobol’s Traveling Photographer series, this useful introduction to a famous tourist destination has unexpected child appeal. (facts, glossary, unlabeled world map) (Nonfiction. 8-11)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7636-4166-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2011
Young researchers eager to know more about outlaw Belle Starr and adventurer and philanthropist Nellie Cashman might start...
A good idea by a fine author and illustrator goes somewhat awry in this middle-grade collective biography of 15 women of the Old West.
Winter gets in trouble right away with the introduction, in which he tries and fails to define the Wild West, with sentences like “There weren’t too many women in the Wild West, so the few who were there had to be really wild to compete with all those raucous men.” The women chosen are fascinating and often little known: the formerly enslaved Mary Fields, who drove a stagecoach for the U.S. Postal Service and was just its second woman employee; Lola Montez and Lotta Crabtree, wildly popular Gold Rush entertainers; and The-Other-Magpie, a Crow woman warrior. Though no doubt intended to be rollicking and engaging, the prose instead often seems patronizing or flip. Is it important that both Esther Morris, Wyoming suffragist and judge, and Carry Nation, anti-alcohol crusader, were both six feet tall and about 180 pounds? The biography of Santa Fe casino owner "La Tules" ends by saying that Mexico "continues to bring us Mexicans." Guevara notes that all but two of the sepia-and-black–accented watercolor portraits were taken directly from photographs of their subjects.
Young researchers eager to know more about outlaw Belle Starr and adventurer and philanthropist Nellie Cashman might start here, but they will have to move on to more reliable sources. (timeline, map) (Collective biography. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-8234-1601-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
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