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Every time you turn the page, you're met with another child living at the *turn of the century* hence, the title, Turn of the Century. The book contains a millennium's worth of children. One by one, each child describes his or her life starting with a child living at A.D. 1000 and continuing on all the way to a child living on January 1, 2000. That's eleven children in all. Each two-page spread is colorfully illustrated with pictures that fit the time frames well. There's a blurb of text where the child describes his or her life and then a blurb that starts with "In the year 1X00..." and then proceeds to list about 4 or 5 tidbits of information that describes that century.
The book does what it does very well; however I bought this book hoping for a little more *meat.* So, I'm a little disappointed with it. My kids, being in the suggested age range of 9-12, liked it well enough when I read it to them (that's how we do history--as a group). But for us, I'd like a little more info. I do think that this would be a good book for that age range (9-12) if it were to be checked out of the library, but I tend to shy away from buying books that have little chance of it being referred to over and over again.
I think that this book would be worth buying if my children were somewhere in the ages of 4 through 8. At those ages, they'd like hearing the story over and over again. And since this book covers a lot of topics, we would be able to get a lot of mileage out of it, especially with a map nearby. This is a good book, but the ages of the readers is the key.
Here's some of the topics that could be good jumping off points for further study or possibly unit studies, in case you're interested:
Angle-land (England)
clothing (how many
outfits owned)
beds of straw
two-room hut
cow to keep warm
sundials
nunneries
arranged marriages
page (knight training)
crusades
Holy Land
life expectancy
children's games
horn full of ink
quill pen
Hail Mary
view a hanging
Noah's Flood played
by actors
children beaten for
poor work in school
ale drunk by all
minstrels
story of Troy
scurvy
bedbugs
plague
last names become common
printing press
barbers pull teeth
theaters in London
tobacco
potatoes
candle and soap making
apprenticeships
new inventions
frontier
vaccine for small pox
slavery
coal furnace
Katzenjammer Kids
horses and buggy
phonograph
hospitals
aspirin
Well, regardless of whether I think the book has enough information in it or not, it's a neat idea. The turning of the millennium is a unique time in history, and Turn of the Century has captured each century in a creative way.
And
of course, you may buy this book from Amazon.com!
There should be some reviews there by other reviewers also. If you're
still not sure, check with your library.
| The companion book looks like a fun
book: Meeting
the Millennium: 30 Activities for the Turn of the Century!
for about ages 4-8 |
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