By John Malam
Illustrated by Simon Abbott
Who knew that the Romans were really into their bath time? In fact, during Roman times, special bath houses were built just for the occasion. You would begin with a steam room, proceed to the hot room, then a cool room and then jump into cold water and finally end with a massage. In the book Meet the Incredible Romans, you are taken through different parts of Roman life and given a glimpse of what it was really like.
The book has incredibly vivid and colorful drawings and simple writing to bring a complex, historical period down to the level of a child. It goes through various parts of Roman society to give you an idea of Roman life. The book is a non-fiction, fact-filled account of the Roman period. It begins with a simple lesson on the city of Rome, including where it is and how it was founded. It also does a good job of providing “fun facts” that relate to every day modern life, such as the fact that Romans created milestones.
The book then describes a different part of Roman life, such as Roman Rulers, Ferocious Fighting, chariot racing, the Roman army, neighborhoods, religion, meal time and bath time. Each section provides quite a lot of detail in a simple, precise way, using bright pictures to tell the story. There are fun facts on each page related to the topic.
The last page of the book also lists some ancient Roman facts and on the back cover, you are provided with definitions related to Rome. A final thing that makes this book fun is that they provide a website with extra facts about Roman life.
This book, along with others in the series, provide an excellent description of the topic at hand, along with engaging illustrations. As an adult, I had fun with the book, and so did my children. Although, my 7 year-old son thought it was a quick read, he did say he thought it was too short and wanted to know more.
• Easy to Read 5
• Quality of Illustrations 5
• Appealed to both boys and girls Absolutely 5
• Kept my child(ren)’s interest 5
• I would purchase this for my family: yes/no Yes
• I would purchase this as a gift: yes/no Yes
• I found information in this book helpful Yes
• Overall rating 5
Meet the Incredible Romans was published by Ticktock and has a cover price of $8.99
www.ticktockextra.com
Meet the Reviewer!
Christine Rowe is seriously addicted to children’s books. Her family may actually accuse her of having a problem as they find them in the strangest places (yes, recently her 2 year-old son decided it would be great to put one in the dishwasher). Christine has lived in the Northern Virginia area for more than eight years, is married, and has two sons ( ages 7 and 2), a dog, a cat, a snake, several fish and a job as director of human resources for a local training company.
