The Roman News

History News

by Andrew Langley, Philip de Souza

At home or at school, these innovative titles make history come alive!

Covering ancient Rome in the form of a daily newspaper written at the time, this innovative and acclaimed book presents historical nonfiction in a unique, kid-friendly format. Affordable and accessible as your morning newspaper, THE ROMAN NEWS gives young readers the unforgettable sense of actually being citizens of an ancient nation.

Genres: History, Childrens, Ancient History, Nonfiction, Picture Books, Mythology

32 pages, Paperback

Published August 4, 1999

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author with this name on GR

Reviews

[Alicia Willis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is sort of cute! It's a Roman "newspaper", giving a 21st century individual an idea of all that would have made the news if the Romans had had a newspaper. From the Circus Maximus games to the conquest of Britain, the news is in there!

[Vicki Cline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ancient Roman history and culture in a tabloid news format. In addition to articles about important events, like the assassination of Julius Caesar, Hannibal's invasion and the destruction of Pompeii by Vesuvius, there are sections on sports (gladiators, chariot races), commerce (how to buy a good slave), religion (new gods or old?) and women's news (an advice column). The most amusing parts were the employment want ads and ads for things you might buy, like a townhouse, sandals or wigs. The illustrations are also very good.

[Ahmadou · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved The Roman News. It was like a Roman newspaper. They had everything from wars to slaves to fashion. One of the articles was about how they stabbed Julius Ceaser because they thought he was trying to take control of the government.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great way to teach kids about ancient Rome - exciting and compelling - terrific for historical teaching or just plain fun

[Dayo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great way to inform you about the roman times. Good read.

[Riq Hoelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wanted to like it more than I did.
This thin book is certainly very attractive with its many graphics and easygoing style and probably in the end does stimulate interest for younger readers to try to find out more. It would have been nice however if some controversial conclusions about Roman history were not presented as fact. For example, it is not universally agreed that Romulus was an historical person or that 753 BC is the actual date of the founding of the city. While I fully realize that the conceit of the book is that it is supposed to be a view of the world as the Romans themselves saw it, that does not excuse giving wrong information. Anyway, the Romans certainly did not use the term BC which is freely used here. And these are not the only cases. It would have been nice if the Colosseum were also given its proper name for example, the Flavian Amphitheater. It is surprising to see Diocletian criticized for dividing the empire as this is not universally considered harmful by historians. And so on. I'm not entirely sure I agree with the ordering of the book either. Initially it goes in chronological order and then this is totally abandoned as one skips ahead to Constantine, then back to Vespasian, forward to Hadrian, etc. Overall, the book is worth buying, but an annotated guide to go with it would be quite helpful.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot about Ancient Rome reading this. Even though I grew up as a kid during the time when newspapers were rapidly going out of fashion, I still read this book a lot, and it taught me about Ancient Tome. Especially, this showed me how differently people thought in the past. It was interesting, especially how long Rome was powerful.

[Lekeshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

We read this as a read aloud during our Symposium Time. My littles would request this by name first each time. We enjoyed the glimpse into the life of others. It spark great conversations.

[Xavier · Rating 5 out of 5]

a wonderful Roman news

[Maren Prestegaard · Rating 3 out of 5]

My daughter wasn't pulled in by this.

[Laurie Wheeler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun way to learn about Roman history that we used in our Classical Dialectic homeschool history studies.

[Sarah Welton-Lair · Rating 3 out of 5]

Roman News is part of a series of books for children, designed to look like a newspaper from a historical era. As a kid, I found them fascinating, and I especially enjoyed looking at the ads for all sorts of things corresponding to the time period. Three stars.

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good information in an original format. Although because my children don't read the paper or ads some of the tidbits had to be explained to them.

[Sylvia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick overview of ancient Rome written as if newspaper articles.

[Bryan]

I liked it, i love learning about the Roman empire and this book has a lot of information dating back as far as 800 b.c.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

We love all the books in this series. It's a lighthearted look at ancient Roman history and culture.

[Belle Meade School]

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