Tales of Ancient Worlds, potato chip history for fourth grade and up

Imagine a world where Indiana Jones and the National Treasure movies never existed. Yeah, it would certainly be a world where quality cinema was lacking three or four excellent films between the two series. But, even in that situation, kids would still be fascinated by archeology and ancient worlds. That’s where Tales of Ancient Worlds: Adventures in Archeology hits home. It is a reference book, but education and the fruits that it yields are awesome. This is a book that’s tailor-made for fourth or fifth-graders on many levels.

When you look at Tales of Ancient World it is important not to be intimidated. Don’t be scared. It is a thick book. It’s a big-kid, thick book that is loaded with information that your parents or your middle school students never knew or have forgotten. Kids: on the upside, this book is loaded with information that your parents, older siblings, and classmates don’t know or have forgotten. As we all know, but you sometimes don’t like to admit it, you want to be that kid or person, who shares facts of information that others around you don’t know.

Tales of Ancient Worlds is that gateway to old eras, mysterious buildings, natural disasters, forgotten cities, and bigger-than-life things that kids have a hard time fathoming. Imagine a vat that was found under the floor of a samurai’s house that contained 260,000 coins. How about entire buildings that were constructed using bones? Did you hear about the largest ancient city ever discovered in India? It contained dozens of streets that were all aligned with the points of a compass, just like the precise orientation of the pyramids of Giza. Essentially, the mindset that some elementary school students have of cultures from two thousand years ago, or older, being simple and more akin to cave-dwelling societies are completely incorrect.

The book does examine some of those more ancient ancestors. The skull of Jebel Irhoud which was found in Morocco is over 300,000 years old. The migration of people from South America to North America happened about 25,000 years ago and was possible due to Canada warming up a little bit.

The table of contents is very thorough and allows readers to thumb ahead to things that interest them, or simply read along with the flow of history. There’s also a glossary and index for those young students who are doing essays on particular subjects. You elementary school-aged students and your essays. Tales of Ancient Worlds is big-brain material for you students that want to go the extra mile and make your essays stand out, as opposed to simply filling in the blanks.

Those young readers in fourth grade will be able to read most of the words. If you’re in fifth grade you can read all of the words, and those sixth-graders will be able a little more fluently. Those older ages will also be able, and expected to, produce essays on a slightly higher level.  Don’t misjudge the softly drawn illustrations in the book for one that’s not intelligent. This is an illustration-heavy book that presents a look at history that doesn’t just scratch the surface. It’s smart and can add details that those know-it-all kids will still be illuminated by.

What’s most surprising is the fact that Tales of Ancient Worlds is readable and bubbles with personality. It is, without a doubt, a reference book, but the manner in which it’s presented and laid out gives it a storyline. However, young readers can also look for specific things or periods of history also. It’s also quite challenging to only look at two pages. You open the book out of curiosity, see people digging in the muck in 1972 London who discover planks that were used by Vikings and you want to see more. This leads to people who explored the Pacific Ocean and between this, the illustrations and the short paragraphs you’ve decided to study anthropology when you go to college, or a screenwriter who’s going to write a worthy sequel to National Treasure.

Tales of Ancient Worlds: Adventures in Archeology is by Stefan Milosavljevich with illustrations by Sam Caldwell and was created for St. Martin’s Press by Neon Squid, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers.

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