Pocket Explorer: The Ancient Greek World

by Richard Woff

Discover the peoples and places of the Ancient Greek World. Discover how the ancient Greeks traded with peoples all around the Mediterranean Sea and beyond, and founded new cities that became great centers of culture in the ancient world. Visit the Mycenaean and Minoan sites where the heroes of the Bronze Age had their citadels and palaces. Explore two contrasting city-states of Classical Greece—Athens (the birthplace of theater, philosophy, and democracy) and Sparta (the ultimate military super-state). Look inside the temples, theaters, schools, sports stadia and gymnasia, houses and palaces. Examine the objects that the Greeks left behind, and what they have to tell us about life in those ancient times.

Genres: History

32 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2010

Reviews

[Timothy McNeil · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book does an unexpectedly good job of covering much of the important aspects of Ancient Greece (and her culture). I do not know how useful it would be to the targeted age group (it is listed for "ages 9 and up"), especially given keeping some traditional spellings (e.g., Herakles instead of Hercules) and lack of explanation of where regions may be (I honestly do not know if a 4th or 5th grader readily knows where the Levant or Etruria are). Still, for condensing much material, the book only makes a few errors, notably listing Schliemann as "a wealthy German archaeologist" (which is not exactly false, but gives a very different impression of the man than his richer story reveals).
The map in the back is surprisingly useful, and could easily serve as a great tool for a child's further education about Ancient Greece.