Time Traveler

Usborne Time Traveller

by Judy Hindley, Toni Goffe, James Graham-Campbell

A one-volume edition of four time-travelling accounts which shed light on the life of typical families in ancient Egypt, Rome, medieval times and during the age of the Vikings. With full colour illustrations.

Genres: History, Childrens, Nonfiction, School, 2nd Grade, Reference, Medieval

130 pages, Hardcover

First published December 12, 1977

About the author

Judy Hindley, who has written more than fifty books for children, has a special knack for capturing the language and subjects that delight preschoolers. Among her books are THE BIG RED BUS, THE PERFECT LITTLE MONSTER, and THE BEST THING ABOUT A PUPPY. She is also the author of the immensely popular EYES, NOSE, FINGERS, AND TOES and DO LIKE A DUCK DOES.

Reviews

[Emmie]

This unique book gives a fun overview of four major time periods. It's an interesting look at culture including family, school, work, dress, food and general living. Our family enjoyed reading through this to learn about different time periods and how they lived.

[Laura (Book Scrounger)]

We enjoyed using this book for history readings during the past two years. The "time traveler" aspect is only emphasized a little bit in the beginning of each section, but does not get in the way of communicating factual information about a different fictional family living in each particular time period (ancient Egypt, ancient Rome, Vikings, and Medieval times). Over the course of the book (we read the sections in reverse order to keep the ancient-to-modern chronology) we get to see a Viking burial, visit Egypt's land of the dead, go to the Roman baths, and see a squire become a knight, and much more. The illustrations are well labeled and help children "see" instead of just hear about these different times and peoples. Recommended!

[Margaret Chind]

[Lydia Goddard]

This was a great tie-in book for our history. Fun pictures and stories of different families living during different periods of history - Ancient Egyptians, Vikings, Romans, and Middle Ages.

[Shannon]

This was a delightful history book! It gives great overviews of Medieval, Viking, Ancient Roman, and Ancient Egyptian times, all by following fictional "characters" from one family through the major features of each age. For example, in Viking times, the main character Knut is a Viking raider, his son Beorn emigrates to Iceland, and his brother (I think) Olaf dies from wounds received in battle and receives the full Viking burial rites. Later, one of the Viking characters is on trial for murder! (We were quite intrigued.) We see their homes, their games, their schools, their battles tactics, and more. As "shallow" as the characterization is ([character]= [his job] is about as far as you get), it made my kids more personally invested in the history. The illustrations are vivid, with TONS to look at on each page.

[Bethany B]

The boys probably rated this one higher. Like a four. I would say 3.5. I felt it repeated what we were reading in another Usborne History book and the other book was better. The time travel thing was cheesy and confusing because we were using as part of history so we read it backwards. I could have done without this one. But it’s okay. If it was all we had I would have enjoyed it but we had better. I think kids would enjoy this on its own though and I could tell my boys liked it.

[Katie Brohard]

My boys enjoyed reading this book so much that they often sneaked it off the school shelf to read ahead! We started it in homeschool last year when they were in 2nd and 4th grades and finished this year in 3rd and 5th. It's a cute way to imagine life during different time periods.

[Kate Hormandl]

I really liked this book when I was little!

[Hunter]

It was really good I do wish it had a little bit more information about the stuff it said

[Kyla]

Great intro to knights, Vikings, Romans and Egyptians for kids!! My kids loved this book.

[Will]

Absolutely loved this book as a kid!!

[Karen Patrick]

Read it as a child. Unable to get this book out of my head or in my country anymore. 😂😂😂 I love it very much anyway.

[Christine Lucia Asha]

This time-travelling book combines four volumes of different points in the past with an interactive, second-person narrative. The illustrations are intricately detailed and do a wonderful job of showing what life was like in a 14th-century castle, ancient Egypt, for the Vikings, and during the Roman Empire. My son loved the castle section so much he made his own coat of arms!

[Ebookwormy1]

A great value! This book includes Usborne's:
Knights & Castles
Viking Raiders
Rome & Romans
Pharaohs & Pyramids

The schtick is that you have a special helmut that allows you to time travel to different periods. This is why they are in reverse chronological order. I'm not a huge fan of this.

Once you arrive in the time/ place/ period, you meet a family of the time, see how they live and observe their adventures. The characters are well done, and appropriately named and illustrated to give students a good understanding of the time period. Narrative and cartoonish blurbs intermingle without becoming long winded.

This is a good book for developing readers to explore themselves and is often chosen from our shelves. The first few times through, they will generally focus on the blurbs, but eventually they move into the narrative. Not a spine/ core book for history, but a highly recommended and thrifty supplemental.

[Alyssabeth]

I used to LOVE this book when I was younger. Not only did I learn from it, but It entertained me- and my brother- for hours on end. "How?" you may ask,well it's not what most people would think. I mean, of course we read it some, but what we did most often and had the most fun doing was playing this game we made up with the book. We would each get a sheet or two of printer paper and each created a main character, we drew it in various sizes to match the different sizes of the drawings in the book. we also drew things, and animals based on the page we were on. We would have them travel throughout the whole book and we had a ton of fun. I would reccomend it to any child or people with children, even if they just plan to read it,

[Rebecca]

Another great by Usborne! My daughter likes the idea of putting on her time travel helmet in order to go back to the time we are studying. Great details and illustrations. So much to learn.

We have read all the sections now and really enjoyed them.

Updated after our second time through with my son and upping the rating to a 5 star. My son adored pretending to put on his helmet and likes this style of book more than my daughter. This is a great resource for these periods of history.

[Aneesa]

The boys LOVE this book. We checked it out for a month and then another month, and then another month, and then I bought it on Amazon. Seriously, I'm not that interested in it--but they read it and learn, so I'm giving it 5 stars.

[Megan]

Oh my goodness! :D I love this book! It was my favorite history book when I was in elementary school! I learned so much from it! *sigh* I wish that history text books for highschoolers were as interesting!

[Lisa]

A history book that young children will love. Aided by large, colorful illustrations, the child is told to use his magic time helmet to travel back through the ages to the time of the crusades, the Viking raiders, ancient Rome, and ancient Egypt. Includes fun time quizzes, too.

[Christina]

This book is definitely at the top of Max's list for favorite school books this year.

[Ann]

Wonderful detailed look at life in the time of the Vikings, medieval knights and castles, the Romans and the ancient Egyptians.

[Jennifer Dunne]

A wonderful book to explain life in ancient times.

[James]

I didn't enjoy this especially. I think my class will though. I will put it on the class topic book shelf.

[Emmet Miles]

Great history book!

[Alicia Carlson]

Best elementary history book. Lots of color, interesting facts, social life. Must have for home schoolers.

[Radagast]

A fun history encyclopedia

[Laura]

This is a great history books for kids! I highly recommend it!

[Abraham Ray]

nice history book for kids!

[Alycia]

Meh