Groovy Greeks

Horrible Histories #4

by Terry Deary, Martin Brown (Illustrator)

Apparently the Greeks (we are talking about the Ancient variety) were a rather groovy bunch. The boys didn't start school until they were seven and girls didn't have to go at all. Greek children invented all manner of cool games just for something to do, and the grown-ups invented the Olympic Games and made the men run naked.

As Terry Deary points out, though, in his Horrible Histories: Groovy Greeks, things were not always quite as jolly and some of the more disturbing facts unearthed in this funny and clever alternative to the history book are actually quite, well, horrible.

Illustrated by the talented Martin Brown, Horrible Histories: Groovy Greeks adds a certain edge to the study of Ancient Greece by getting down to the nitty-gritty of Greek life and letting rip with the kind of nasty, revolting facts that any kids would kill to get their hands on.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Childrens, Historical, Humor, Middle Grade, Comedy

146 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

A former actor, theatre-director and drama teacher, Deary says he began writing when he was 29. Most famously, he is one of the authors of the Horrible Histories series of books popular among children for their disgusting details, gory information and humorous pictures and among adults for getting children interested in history. Books in the series have been widely translated into other languages and imitated.

A cartoon series has been made of the series of books and was shown on CiTV for a period in 2002.

The first series of a live-action comedy sketch show of the same name was shown on CBBC in 2009 and a second series is due.

Terry is also known widely throughout children and adult reading groups alike for his True Stories series (see below for series list).

He received an Honorary Doctorate of Education from the University of Sunderland in 2000. His numerous accolades also include the Blue Peter "Best Nonfiction Author of the Century" Award in the U.K.

-Wikipedia

Reviews

[Amy Mckee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a 17 year old classics student and not ashamed to say that I bought this at groovy Greeks live (where I also met Terry Deary). As a child I remember starting this book and not really liking it because of all the complicated Greek names, I couldn't really understand a lot of it but this time around I enjoyed looking at the ancient Greeks from a child's perspective and seeing how actually ridiculous they often were. Wasn't really a fan of all the quizzes and games but it's a kids book, I'm not really the target audience. Would recommend for older children (11-13) as some of the language is a little complicated, but I'm no expert.

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Interesting and amusing reading!

[Ehsan'Shokraie' · Rating 4 out of 5]

خواندن سری تاریخ ترسناک تجربه جالبی ست،اکنون که هر آنچه در این سری کتاب های نوجوانان است را می دانم خواندنش از دیدگاه پرداخت به تاریخ به گونه ای که جذاب و پر کشش باشد منحصر به فرد است،گاه به این فکر میکنم که کتاب هایی که در کودکی و نوجوانی میخوانیم به گونه ای شخصیت آینده و سرنوشتمان را تعیین می کنند..آن ها سبب می شوند که ما در جوانی چه افکاری داشته باشیم و حتی چه تصمیماتی بگیریم..انتخاب کتاب برای خواندن در این سن شاید مهم ترین انتخاب در سفر کتابخوانی فرد باشد.

[Rosava Doshchyk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Захопливо про древніх греків — не те що на ваших нудних уроках історії!
Книжка орієнтована на школярів, але буде цікава й дорослим. Террі Дієрі за допомогою кумедних ілюстрацій та стріпів Мартіна Брауна розповідає про цікаві факти з життя еллінців. Тут і про філософів, і про війни, і про богів, і про винаходи, і про поліси, і про театр. Доступний жартівливий виклад дозволяє сприймати інформацію легко, без жодних зусиль. Особливо підійде тим дітям, які люблять енциклопедії та всякого роду пізнавальні книжки й журнали.

[Clare · Rating 5 out of 5]

An imaginative, humorous, fact filed book on the ancient Greeks. The book is filled with wonderful facts that are put into context, made relevant and are exciting to learn about.

The humour is “corny” yet catching which is a fantastic way for children to remember facts. The book would be suitable for KS2 and would make for a fantastic cross curricular resource in both English and History.

The book could be a great tool to be used also in drama where children could use the facts to create role plays, freeze frames and hot seating.

If groovy Greeks is anything to go by, I look forward to reading the collection of horrible history.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read these when I was a kid and I loved them!

[Miku · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ulubiona seria z dzieciństwa znowu w natarciu. Tym razem na tapet idzie historia Grecji oraz jej mieszkańców. Ciekawostki są okraszone takim typowym angielskim, czarnym humorem, ilustracjami, komiksami oraz zagadkami.
Jeśli ktoś jest zainteresowany dlaczego kobiety biegały nago po lesie i przy okazji udawały niedźwiedzie, jak to jest z tą kuchnią grecką oraz bogami lub ciekawi ich temat olimpiad to śmiało można sięgać po tę pozycję.

[weronika · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.8
uwielbiam terry'iego i jego książki 🙏🙏

[Nagini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Czadzik 🙂

[Mollie Ballinger · Rating 1 out of 5]

Only read this because it was on the back of a Percy Jackson book xx

[Michael P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This may not be the best Greek history ever written but it may be the most delightful. The irreverent and folksy approach is unfailingly fun and entertaining.

[sabisteb aka callisto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Die Horrible Histories erfreuen sich in den angelsächsischen Ländern, vor allem UK, einer großen Beliebtheit. In dieser Serie wird die Geschichte von ihrer unangenehmen, ekligen Seite betrachtet. Die Bücher sind meist eine Mischung aus Comics, lehrreichen Texten und Rätseln.
Analog hierzu produzierte die BBC eine Fernsehserie und auch Hörspiele. Hier wird in kleinen Spielszenen mit typisch britischem, schwarzem Humor, über die Highlights und Lowlights der griechischen Geschichte hergezogen. Welche Körperflüssigkeiten mussten die Griechischen Ärzte alle probieren (gruselig), wie war das Schulleben und die Schulzeit in Sparta (G8 ist ein Spaziergang dagegen)…
Die eklige Seite der Griechischen Geschichte (die hier aus Höflichkeit noch lebender Griechen als Groovy Greeks statt gory Greeks bezeichnet wird), wird auf sehr unterhaltsame Weise vermittelt, obwohl man viele der Witze wohl wirklich nur mit gewissen Geschichtskenntnissen versteht.
Die Sprecher sind Top und auch die Soundkulisse ist stimmig. Schade, dass es diese Serie nie nach Deutschland geschafft hat.

[Phillip · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the Horrible Histories books. They are kids books, but the info in them is actually quite interesting. Although much of the historical info is decontextualized or mixed in with jokes (some of which are easy to distinguish, and others less so, especially for kids), the books have a lot of facts and info that makes history much more fun and interesting than conventional history books.
https://youtu.be/KH8lsjeaUf4

[Siobhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a child history was one of my favourite school subjects thus making Horrible Histories the perfect books for me.

Nowadays children have the television series yet I belong to the older group that had the books. Personally, I believe any child who has an interest in history should give these books a go. They’re truly gripping and so many topics are covered.

Honestly, Horrible Histories are well worth a read.

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

The groovy Greeks are so much more interesting than I first thought!!! Well... when you leave the gore in, at least. They had very clever tactics about war. They were very smart to build that humongous wooden horse. But the Trojans were quite silly to fall for it. But did you know they actually fell for it twice??!! Yep, so this book taught me lots including that and that is why I recommend this book for everyone!

[Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I you hate this "history" stuff read this! I'm currently reading " Who are you calling a wooly mammoth?" FUNNY. Lead by Mel Roach (a cockroach) making it even funnier! A great series!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (boy did I use a lot of exclamations!) (there I go again)

[Lady Clementina ffinch-ffarowmore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining like the others in the series and there was quite a bit that I didn’t know before. I love how these books use things like cartoon strips, imagined diary entries and newspaper reports to get the info across. Great fun.

[Sophia Cha · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was a fun way to teach history by making it a comic book full of funny memes. I learned a lot in this book so I enjoyed it a lot. the beginning made me crack up and while usually I would have hated learning history I enjoyed learning it this time.

[Hazel · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMG! I loved these books! I had all of them from scholastic book orders when I was younger. They are a perfect way to get kids to learn some history. Fun and informative at the same time!

[Carolina · Rating 5 out of 5]

A melhor maneira de aprender mais sobre os gregos antigos de uma forma super divertida! ;)

[Guguk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mixing histories with jokes purrrfectly ଲ(ⓛ ω ⓛ)ଲ

You can still see the line between, of course (^..^)

[Indah Threez Lestari · Rating 4 out of 5]

42 - 2017

[Becca · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.9 stars *

This review is 100% my own opinion!

Despite loving the Groovy Greeks in the TV show, I didn’t enjoy the book as much as I expected. I think the main thing was the fact that this book jumps around quite a bit, going backwards and forwards during the Greek timeline which confused me a little bit. I would have preferred things to have been more chronological but this was just a personal preference!

I also got a little confused at times with the names of kings etc which made it a little hard to keep up with. I guess I haven’t really read too much about Greek history before so perhaps after doing some more research, this book would be easier to follow.

Despite this, I did enjoy this book - more than The Stone Age but not as much as the Egyptians. I enjoyed learning about Alexander the Great (he is my favourite historical figure) and the Greek inventions, the Greek gods and day to day life as a Greek during this timeline. It was interesting learning about the Olympic Games as well and this book did have the same humour as previous books.

Overall, I was a little disappointed with Groovy Greeks as a book, especially after loving the clips in the TV show and since Alexander the Great is my favourite historical figure. I think I just enjoyed Awesome Egyptians so much that I was expecting this one to be even better, but sadly was disappointed a little. But for an introduction to Greek history, I do recommend this book and it gives a good foundation for further research! I’m looking forward to continuing this series!

[Owen Shearer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm quite biased when it comes to horrible histories, being a history graduate, but these books are amazing.

The Groovy Greeks is a factual book about ancient Greek history, but delivers facts in a humorous way, making it easier for children, and even adults to remember. The whacky way Greeks did certain things, their culture, and gods all come across in this book. These funny historical books make history more enjoyable and hopefully inspire children to engage more with history.

[The Artisan Geek · Rating 3 out of 5]

26/11/19
Quite an alright read!

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[Emily Kathleen]

Once again I'm not going to give this a rating but it was such a fun and quick read that I managed to finished in one evening. It made me chuckle at points and loved reading about the Greeks, especially their mythology.

[Evie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been more than judged for having this on my good reads *cough cough emma. But nothing beats a horrible history’s book for getting the history of a country your visiting. Next time I go anywhere, I’m bringing a horrible history’s guide into the history of the country. They’re brilliant for quick, interesting information.

[Chloe Reads Books]

My least favourite of these so far - but it was definitely still interesting!

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny and interesting, though a few of the stories really were horrible.

[Sophie Palmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Groovy geezers frfr