Stone Age Boy

by Satoshi Kitamura

Step back 15,000 years as a modern boy enters a Stone Age village and learns a few prehistoric tricks of the trade.

One day a boy falls down a hole, and an amazing thing happens — when he wakes, he’s in a camp full of people wearing animal skins! Mixing flight of fancy with prehistoric facts, Satoshi Kitamura ushers us back to a time of surprising innovation and artistic expression, shown in cave paintings visible to this day.

Genres: Picture Books, History, Childrens, Nonfiction, Friendship, Historical, Teaching

40 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2007

About the author

Satoshi Kitamura was born in 1956. After dropping out of school to pursue art, Kitamura decided not to attempt a 10-year apprenticeship as a potter and instead worked as a graphic artist. He was not trained as an artist, but at the age of 19 began to do commercial work as an illustrator for adverts and magazines. He moved from Tokyo to London in 1979 where he worked mainly at designing greeting cards.
Satoshi Kitamura has won several awards, including the Mother Goose Award, the National Art Library Award from the Victoria and Albert Museum, and a Nestle Children’s Book Prize Silver Medal. He lives in Japan.

Reviews

[Judith Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful! And when your children are older, I can recommend Stig of the Dump!

[Sofia Brito · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice little book for my year 3 class. Great illustrations!

[Ella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book which could be used in KS1 or lower KS2 as a book to base learning around. There are lots of learning opportunities around the book due to the story following factual aspects of the Stone Age. There is one particular page where there is a collage of jobs done in the Stone Age. I have seen this page used to inspire writing as well as alongside teaching of how people lived in the Stone Age. The story also allows for children to rewrite it, changing aspects for example, placing themselves as Om or the Stone Age boy.

[Meredith Walsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonder filled. Fiction and fact. My child four year old was entirely captivated by the making of needles from antlers.

[Benjamin Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative along with being a nice short story. Looking forward to our next topic on The Stone Age!

[Amy Spour (bookish.contentment) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Looking forward to sharing this with my class next term.

[Sudha Hariharan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a nice time-travel story that can be used to teach children about the Stone Age. The illustrations are pleasing and the text provides for great opportunities for discussions about the Stone age. What did they eat? How did they forage for food? What did they wear? How did they make tools? Why did they paint? There is a page that portrays a montage of the jobs done by prehistoric men and women. It provides a good starting point for conversations on archaeology and history.

However, I would have preferred if the portraiture was a little longer with a little more detail and a little more fun. The story is not gripping and felt very dull. I found the killing of the reindeer in the last few pages a bit disconcerting. While this may be an authentic depiction of the stone age life, most children would be upset by this.

Overall, this book is an interesting plot with engaging illustrations. Considering the dearth of picture books from this era (in comparison to the plethora of dinosaur books), this book is a nice start for kids to learn about archeology and the prehistoric era. Just tread carefully about the reindeer pages and your kids might enjoy this book!

[Peacegal · Rating 2 out of 5]

A modern child ventures into a time long ago when he meets and interacts with a Stone Age family.
The illustrations are interesting and educational, but I was disappointed that besides a brief reference to picking berries, the author only discusses food preparation and collection in terms of meat. Despite our fantasies of the mighty prehistoric hunter, researchers have found that our forebears did far more gathering than hunting.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun time-travel tale that takes a young boy back to The Stone Age, where he learns how cave people lived. The story is entirely predictable, but it's fun to read aloud.

We've been fans of Satoshi Kitamura for a long time, so we knew we'd enjoy the illustrations. And I really liked the author's note at the end of the book that explains the inspiration for the tale. We enjoyed reading this book together.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

There aren't many picture books that talk about life back in the pre-metal days. This one does a good job of explaining how people made tools and clothes, how they hunted and lived.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice story with some detailed illustrations about stone age life. Easy to read and a nice intro to stone age life.

[Chloe Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This amazing picture book about the Stone Age is entertaining and educational at the same time, my year 3/4 class loved it.

The use of ellipses throughout helps build interest and suspense which really drew the children in and made room for plenty of predictions.
The cyclical nature of the book is also really lovely, with the same picture repeated twice to symbolise the time travel.
I love how the main character was influenced by his Stone Age friend into becoming an archaeologist as an adult! He learned along with the reader which made the story feel like a much more personal and relatable experience.

Om’s lack of English lent itself to some good conversation about non verbal communication and the children were able to do some drama pretending to talk to a Stone Age person they couldn’t understand.

The ending was my absolute favourite with the picture and a simple sentence as it had so much impact and drove home the idea that cave paintings were discovered by historians many years later and can be used as evidence. It was also just so bittersweet and lovely as it reminded us that Om really did exist!

A fantastic story linking straight into a Stone Age topic with plenty of fun, friendship and facts along the way!

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great introduction for children about the Stone Age to encourage them to ask further questions and direct their own learning? Why did they paint pictures on the walls? How could we make cave paintings? How and why did they move away from stone? What animals did they eat? How did they make shelters? What would make a good shelter? What can we learn from cave paintings? What do archaeologists do?

There is a fantastic timeline in the book too that details different events in the book.

[Lucy Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gorgeous illustrations again from Satoshi Kitamura - can easily see myself using this book when covering the Stone Age topic with KS1 pupils. Didn’t find the plot as enjoyable as his other work but it was a really good introductory text to the era. I loved the pages showing the tasks Stone Age people would undertake.

[Emily Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

.
I read this to my year 3/4 class as part of our topic on Stone Age to Iron Age. The boy falls into the Stone age and meets Om, who shows him round and teaches him about the way they lived. The kids absolutely loved the story and were hooked by it. I particularly liked the factual aspects which really helped the children to understand more about how people lived differently. Fantastic book!

[Istvan Zoltan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An engaging story that can be followed at the basic level to an exciting climax by little ones - my 3 year old loves it - but has plenty of detail that can make it interesting all the way to probs around 7-8yr old. Nice art style: some panels - like the people celebrating with a dance party after a successful hunt - are just absolutely wholesome.

[Nicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great way to introduce the topic of the Stone Age to Year 3 children. It gives an overview of what it was like in the stone age and is set through a modern day child's eyes. I would definitely recommend this to all Key Stage 2 teachers.

[Cl3-Dyer]

I have previously used this book in year 3 to support the topic of the Stone Age. Children have enjoyed reading and have then create their own books by changing a character and creating their own descriptions.

[Milly]

This book gave the children a lot of discussion points and allowed a lot of questions for them to ask. It is such a good book to read if you are teaching Stone Age as it goes into detail about lots of aspects about that era.

[Lynn Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

For anyone curious about what life was like centuries ago, this book is very interesting. A boy believes he experienced going back in time and meeting a girl and her family in the stone age. There are facts and cave drawings to see in this book. Great illustrations.

[Skylar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Do not recommend for homeschool/academic use. I had hoped this book would be more historically accurate (minus the time travel bit, which I could live with) and less Eurocentric because it's written by a Japanese man, but the characters look like they're from Harry Potter. He lived and worked in London for decades and this was published in 2007, so that makes sense. A nice book, just not what I would want to use in an academic setting.

[Lili · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was pretty good

[Ellie Matthews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely story combined with lots of factual information on the Stone Age. Pictures are incredible, definitely using it with year 3/4 next term!

[Neo Cachia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in school
It was a dream or was it

[Sparrows at Home · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun story that relates to our study of the stone age era and cave painting. The children and I all enjoyed it.

[Teach 005]

Archeology and pre-history
History:
Stone Age life, Iron Age
Comparisons to present and past.

[Amarachi]

This amazing 😊😊😊😋

[Shona Carnall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect for teaching the Stone Age.

[Tessa Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book if you are doing a learning experience about the Stone Age.

[Ms Doxey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great books, makes the stone age feel real for a child and simplifies some of the day-to-day activities. Can't wait to use in the classroom

Year 2