February 2016, Claret Press, 70 pages, Paperback, Review copy
Book Summary
Herodotus wrote the first history book in the world. That is why he is
sometimes called the ‘Father of History’. He lived about 2,500 years ago
in the fifth century BC. He was born at a place called Halicarnassus in
Asia Minor. The modern names for these places are Bodrum in Turkey.
Herodotus was a keen traveller who went all over the ancient world and
was interested in everything he saw and heard. When he came back from
his travels he went to Athens in Greece and gave lectures about the
places he had visited. Finally he decided to write a book about them.
In
the later part of his life he went to Italy where he did more work on
his book and finally died there in 425 BC. King Leonidas of Sparta and
the Battle of Thermopylae, made famous by the blockbuster movie 300,
began with Herodotus' stories. Retold to be accessible for children,
these stories will delight readers of all ages. This book is appropriate
to support the curriculum of Key Stage 3.
Nayu's thoughts
Children are very lucky to have
Lorna's retelling of a few of Herodotus's tales! My degree was in
ancient history, so reading the tales took me back to many happy
memories at uni. I wish I had this during my degree because it
explains some complicated tales clearly, which hopefully encourage
the reader to investigate the stories for themselves.
Lorna's
narration is engaging and kept me wanting to know what happened next,
even though in the depths of my memory I know what happened in the
stories. There is lots of selfishness, betrayal, oracles, and much
more for readers to enjoy. Personally I'd
have preferred a brighter colour scheme and a few more illustrations,
but the present ones fit the feel of the tales. I feel there is a lot
of scope for both individual readers and achers to discuss whether
they would have taken the same course of action as the characters,
whether there was a right decision to be made, and just what the
ancient world was like for the wise historian who I spent a year
getting to know him well.
I hope this brings about a thirst for the
ancient world which started in my childhood then got a bit buried
until my teenage years. It's so very cool that Lorna works at the
British Musuem - the thoght of being surrounded by so many artefacts
(including pot fragments which make me crazy happy) has me be a
little bit fangirly!
Suggested read
More ancient history is covered in this fact filled gem of a read Cool Mythology by Malcolm Croft (Non-fiction, Children's, 9/10E, short 'n' sweet review)
Another great non-fiction read for younger readers and those like me who like things simplified is DK My Encyclopedia of Very Important Things by Dorling Kindersley (Children's, Non-Fiction, 10E/10E, short 'n' sweet review)
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