Ancient Greece for Kids (Unfolding the Past, 2)

Awesome book! As a teacher I loved this book… haven’t yo a family member who is studying Greece. She thought it was awesome!

Well, when my granddaughter asked for a book about Ancient Greece, I had no other choice but to find a book about Ancient Greece. This book was well made and had tons of facts about Ancient Greece. Absolutely loved it!!!

Awesome book the grands love it!!

This book is great. Easy and understand for kids 4 to 12. Highly recommend this book.

Even though I was looking for a book on philosophers for kids, this one was OK from a different perspective. Nice designs, layout and paragraphs.

Ancient Greece For Kids by Oldrich Ruzicka and Illustrated by Tomas Tuma is a fun introduction to Ancient Greece. The book discusses daily life in Ancient Greece, Greek Treasures, Greek Gods, Acropolis, City-States, Physical Fitness and Ancient Games, and Alexander the Great. Each piece of information is accompanied by an illustration and distinguished by a colored background. The unique detail of the book is that each pair of pages unfolds into one large page that is reminiscent of a paper map from years ago. The pages are a thicker quality which can handle the constant unfolding. I was surprised to see that some topics were left out including inventions of Ancient Greece or the discussion of trade. My kiddos were most interested in the details about architecture and styles, the temples, and the Trojan horse. The book inspired conversation and a desire to go to the library to learn more about certain topics. As a result we have checked out more books to learn more about the buildings that they were introduced to in this book. It is a fun and approachable way to learn about Greek history.

History book that kids can un-fold show the ancient world larger view. Fun

Ancient Greece for Kids, on first glance, is a beautiful illustrated full color book containing 6 double pages about ancient Greece’s culture with content artfully arrayed in a posterboard fashion. Topics include greek treasures, temples of the gods, city-states, physical fitness and Alexander the Great. But: each thick double-page opens upward to reveal a 4-page map of Greece hidden on the inside! There are thus 6 maps, each of which has a map showing locations of the six themes. For example the Alexander the Great shows on the map the vast area that Alexander conquered and showed in picture format how he used cunning strategy to win one of the most important battles in history (using intelligence rather than size of an army). The map fold-out of Temples of the Gods section shows where different statues / sanctuaries of gods were arranged in Acropolis and about many of the gods and goddesses, as well as Greek theater which was prominent in greek society. The Greek Treasures was one of my favorite pages because it showed some things that were really important to society and where they were located in their country. The only complaint I have is that this there isn’t really a concise timeline of what happened when in Greek history, so if you needed to do a report which included timelines, this isn’t the best source material. However, if you are interested in Greek history and culture, this is an amazingly informative book.

Very informative book for my 8 year old grand child who is learning about the Ancient Greeks at school. Beautiful pictures and amusing facts.

The book is packed full of bite sized interesting facts and lovely illustrations that the children enjoy looking through and talking about. They also love the format of food put maps and “hidden” text, though it’s a little on the fragile side, especially with younger readers (6 years old) involved. The listing suggested reader age 6-9. The format is tricky to handle carefully for a 6 year old (we’re getting a lot of kinks where the pages fold), and the vocabulary used is arguably beyond most readers in that age group. It’s great that the children’s vocabulary is being expanded but in places it is at such a rate that it might be detracting from the subject matter itself, with multiple words in each sentence in a fact box needing explaining, especially to the younger reader who seems to grow tired more quickly of having to comprehend so many new words in a short space of time in order to immerse himself in the picture the words paint. Definitely not a book for most children in the age bracket to enjoy, with comprehension, without adult input. Nonetheless, this has been a hit with my 6 and 8 year old children, and we will be looking to get the other titles from the series.