Recommended History Books for Kids

Horrible Histories: "The Vicious Vikings" is packed with frightening facts about the vile invaders from the North and their savage enemies, including such legendary warriors as Fat-thighs, Oaf, and Stinking.

A guide to Ancient Rome providing information every tourist of past ages needs to know. Where to shop and places to eat are combined with facts about politics, history, art and architecture.

A gorgeous collection of classic Greek myths welcomes readers of all ages into a legendary world of beauty, tragedy, and miracle.

Enter a world where anything is possible. A god might be a mountain or a shower of gold. A nymph may be a stream or an echo in the wind. The myths of ancient Greece are full of such wonders, as well as a host of courageous heroes, cunning heroines, and terrible monsters. Ann Turnbull's compelling prose enlivens sixteen of the most celebrated myths, from the sadness of Persephone to the ill-fated love of Orpheus and Eurydice, from Pandora's unlucky curiosity to the greed of King Midas to many more age-old tales filled with drama and romance. In vivid, expressive detail, Sarah Young's fine-art illustrations bring this golden world to life, capturing creatures from Cerberus, the threeheaded dog, to the sinister snake-haired Medusa.

Perfect for school projects, this useful text covers eight areas of history: Romans, Saxons and Normans, Middle Ages, Tudors, Stuarts, Georgians, Victorians and the 20th Century.

Revised and updated for a new generation!

In a series of fourteen intriguing illustrations, the award-winning A Street Through Time tells the story of human history by exploring a street as it evolves from 10,000 BCE to the present day.

Watch the landscape and daily lives of the street's inhabitants change, as the small settlement grows into a city, is struck by war and plague, and gains trade and industry. Throughout, children are asked to study the photos in order to find a time traveler in each scene, as well as to pick out interesting details, encouraging them to pore over the unique illustrations and more easily learn about the historical background.

I Wonder Why Greeks Built Temples - by Fiona MacDonald - answers all kinds of questions, large and small, that children ask about this ancient culture, from "Who ran the first marathon?" to "Who discovered that the earth is round?" and "Why were Greek sandals bouncy?"

This collection of the best-known of the Greek myths has been carefully written to appeal to young children who will find these stories of gods, mortals and monsters irresistible. Beautiful illustrations by Linda Edwards bring the myths to life for children of all ages.

The Story of the Iliad

Homer's epic poem, The Illiad, is one of the greatest adventure stories of all time. In it, the abduction of the legendary beauty, Helen of Troy, leads to a conflict in which even the gods and goddesses take sides and intervene. It is in the Trojan War that the most valiant heroes of the ancient world are pitted against one another. Here Hectore, Ajax, Achilles, and Odysseus meet their most formidable challenges and in some casas their tragic ends.

Rosemary Sutcliff makes such extraordinary stories as those of those Trojan horse, of Aphrodite and the golden apple, and of the fearsome warrior women Amazons, accessible to contemporary young people.

This book has been selected as a Common Core State Standards Text Exemplar (Grades 6-8, Stories) in Appendix B.


From the Hardcover edition.

Jeanne Bendick, through text and pictures, admirably succeeds in bringing to life the ancient Greek mathematician who enriched mathematics and all branches of science. Against the backdrop of Archimedes' life and culture, the author discusses the man's work, his discoveries and the knowledge later based upon it. The simple, often humorous, illustrations and diagrams greatly enhance the text.
Illustrated by the author.

In the first authoritative biography of Alexander the Great written for a general audience in a generation, classicist and historian Philip Freeman tells the remarkable life of the great conqueror. The celebrated Macedonian king has been one of the most enduring figures in history. He was a general of such skill and renown that for two thousand years other great leaders studied his strategy and tactics, from Hannibal to Napoleon, with countless more in between. He flashed across the sky of history like a comet, glowing brightly and burning out quickly: crowned at age nineteen, dead by thirty-two. He established the greatest empire of the ancient world; Greek coins and statues are found as far east as Afghanistan. Our interest in him has never faded.

Alexander was born into the royal family of Macedonia, the kingdom that would soon rule over Greece. Tutored as a boy by Aristotle, Alexander had an inquisitive mind that would serve him well when he faced formidable obstacles during his military campaigns. Shortly after taking command of the army, he launched an invasion of the Persian empire, and continued his conquests as far south as the deserts of Egypt and as far east as the mountains of present-day Pakistan and the plains of India. Alexander spent nearly all his adult life away from his homeland, and he and his men helped spread the Greek language throughout western Asia, where it would become the lingua franca of the ancient world. Within a short time after Alexander's death in Baghdad, his empire began to fracture. Best known among his successors are the Ptolemies of Egypt, whose empire lasted until Cleopatra.

In his lively and authoritative biography of Alexander, classical scholar and historian Philip Freeman describes Alexander's astonishing achievements and provides insight into the mercurial character of the great conqueror. Alexander could be petty and magnanimous, cruel and merciful, impulsive and farsighted. Above all, he was ferociously, intensely competitive and could not tolerate losing—which he rarely did. As Freeman explains, without Alexander, the influence of Greece on the ancient world would surely not have been as great as it was, even if his motivation was not to spread Greek culture for beneficial purposes but instead to unify his empire. Only a handful of people have influenced history as Alexander did, which is why he continues to fascinate us.

In this elegantly designed volume, more than sixty of Aesop's timeless fables have been carefully selected, humorously retold, and brought gloriously to life by four-time Caldecott Honor-winner Jerry Pinkney. Included are the Shepherd Boy and The Wolf, the Lion and the Mouse, the Tortoise and the Hare, plus many other charactersand moralsthat have inspired countless readers for centuries. With more than fifty magnificent full-color illustrations, this handsome edition is a must for every bookshelf.