Endlessly fascinating, these books provide a perfect introduction to ancient civilizations around the world. From Mesopotamia to Ancient Egypt to Ancient China and beyond, readers are sure to want to delve deeper having explored these engaging books.
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Build Your Own History Museum
by Claudia Martin (author), Beatrice Blue (illustrator), Mike Love (illustrator)
Review: A joy for young readers, this colourful, Lonely Planet Kids book uses an interactive approach to introduce children to ancient civilizations. As they read along, readers construct the centrepiece for each exhibition. The Ancient Romans and Greeks, Mayans and Mesopotamians, all feature among the civilizations introduced. The book begins by providing a general overview of ancient peoples and ends by briefly addressing why civilizations rise and fall. A terrific start for budding historians.
Suggested Reading Age: 6 – 8 years old.
Nonfiction Nuggets Teaching Tip: Research and Create: Invite students to find out more about one of the civilizations in the book. Then ask them to make models of artefacts from that civilization to put in a model museum.
British Museum: Maurice the Museum Mouse’s Amazing Ancient Book of Facts and Jokes
by Tracey Turner (author) Mark Beech (illustrator)
Review: This Nosy Crow book is an entertaining, at times stomach-churning, look at history. Full of highly memorable, random facts with groan-out-loud jokes, this book’s contents are highly appealing to young readers. The jokes feature some excellent wordplay and puns, all of which serve to lodge them in the reader’s memory. Facts are highlighted with titles such as Festering Fact, Fingernail Fact and Foul Fact. Comical black and white illustrations further enhance the book, making it both mentally and visually appealing. A fun, informative read. Great to share with friends and family.
Suggested Reading Age: 5 – 7 years old. In my opinion, the upper end of this age bracket and older readers would get the most out of this book in terms of the history introduced and fully appreciating the jokes.
Nonfiction Nuggets Teaching Tip: Write Your Own: In pairs, groups or with friends or family, challenge each other to come up with a historical joke or pun. In a classroom/homeschool setting, compile these into a book.
Ancient Civilizations: Discover the Golden Ages of History, from Ancient Egypt and Greece to Mighty Rome and the Exotic Maya
by Joseph Fullman
Review: This colourful book provides a super overview of ancient civilizations for readers who are ready to learn more. Accessibly written, children will easily be able to understand the facets that combine to make a civilization. The Phoenecians and the Persian empires feature alongside Mauryan and Gupta India as well as the Maya, providing an introduction to civilizations across the globe. Colourful drawings, diagrams and copious photographs of artefacts bring these past civilizations to life. Children and adults alike are sure to spend hours poring over this book.
Suggested Reading Age: 8 to 12-year-olds. In my opinion, many older readers would enjoy the book and learn plenty from it, too.
Nonfiction Nuggets Teaching Tip: Laser Focus: Some chapters of the book focus on a particular aspect of life such as writing, for example. Ask students to choose a topic of interest such as transport or medicine or games, and look at these through the lense of three or four different civilizations. Ask them to compare and contrast their findings. Are there any similarities/differences? Explore how they have evolved over time, etc
Ancient History: Readers’ Theater (Grades 5 – 8)
by Robert W. Smith
Review: It can be difficult for students to make connections between the past and the present when ancient civilizations, in particular, seem so long ago. These readers’ theatre scripts bring the events and people of the past to life, giving students a greater understanding of what took place and the role of historical figures in them. Events and figures such as Hammurabi’s Law, Archimedes’ Bath, the first emperor of Ancient China and Antony and Cleopatra are included. Altogether 12 episodes in history are represented. Each script is accompanied by background information as well as ways to further extend students’ learning. Truly interactive, this book is a great addition when learning about the past.
Suggested Reading Age: 10 – 14-year-olds.
Nonfiction Nuggets Teaching Tip: Be A Scriptwriter: Having acted out a readers’ theatre together, ask students to write and produce a mini-play. This could be for any historical period they are studying.
A Little History of the World
by E.H. Gombrich (author). Translated by Caroline Mustill.
Review: Written by renowned The Story of Art author E. H. Gombrich, this illustrated edition of A Little History of the World is an absolute treasure. First published in English in 2005 (the original text was published in Vienna in 1936), A Little History of the World tells the story of our world for children. Gombrich’s narrative style is such that you can imagine being sat on a relative’s knee listening to them tell stories from their past. The illustrations, maps and photographs add another dimension to its content. A preface by Gombrich’s granddaughter, Leonie, provides an insight into the origins of the book and is well worth a read (for those who normally skip the foreword!). This is a wonderful way to discover history and truly embodies the saying “olden but golden”. Highly recommended.
Suggested Reading Age: Upper Primary to adults. In my opinion, young children will also enjoy this being read to them with accommodations being made to rephrase/update some of the vocabulary used.
Nonfiction Nuggets Teaching Tip: Historical Silhouettes (art link): The front cover of this edition features historical silhouettes. Ask students to create a silhouette to represent an event/historical time period. Use these to create customised end pages or made into a display.
Happy Reading!
Do YOU know any great ancient civilization books to add to this list? If you do, please leave the title below .
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