Ancient Rome for Kids: A Captivating Guide to Roman History, from the Rise of the Republic through the Roman Empire to Byzantium (History for Children)

This is an excellent book to get a better break down of how the Roman Empire worked and who the different people were. It is an excellent book to pair as additional resources when learning about Rome in class.

This was a Christmas gift for our ten year old — and he loves it! Age appropriate.

This book is one of the series ‘for Kids’ by Captivating History. It continues the pattern of being a good starting point to the title’s subject matter for preteens and up. A wealth of information is presented at a beginning level that hopefully stimulates the reader to further study. Usually, the information follows the chronological evolution of the topic. After each chapter there is a ‘challenge’ to help reinforce learning. Also enhancing understanding and comprehension are many interesting illustrations or photographs. If there is are shortcomings with the series, it is that many of the maps could be improved upon. They are often difficult to interpret or understand. Pronunciation guides are also inconsistently provided. Still, If you are looking for an introduction to a subject matter, this is an excellent, economical, and efficient place to start.

Please note: I was given a copy of this book and have voluntarily decided to give it this honest review. This book continues the series of history books that are written specifically for children.The book is a thin paperback book, being only six inches wide, nine inches long, and 63 pages. There are ten chapters in the book and at the end of each chapter there is a short activity, either vocabulary skills, vocabulary match, or a fill-in-the-blank activity. These activities are easy to do, fun, and an excellent way to review the chapter. Almost every page has a colored picture, photograph, or maps. At the end of the book is a bibliography listing magazine articles, websites, and YouTube video links. The book covers the period of time from the beginning of the Roman Republic in 509 BCE until the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 CE. Even though the ancient Roman Empire existed over 2,000 years ago, we still see the affects that this ancient civilization has on our life. Our modern system of government, having the executive, judicial, and legislative branches, originated in ancient Rome. Buildings that were built in ancient Rome still exist today and can be visited. Ancient walls and buildings are still visible as far away as England and Scotland. You can read books or see movies that depict historical events and life in ancient Rome. The charts, maps, and photographs used throughout the book are colorful, easy to read, and help keep the reader interested. The book is easy to read and makes reading about ancient history fun!

I rounded this up from a 4.5 to a 5. The half star reduction is because I remain confused about the term "kids" as the target readers. With my "grands" I find that the high schooler will read these books if the subject interest them or they are reviewing the subject in school. The younger kids are not interested in reading them or even having me read it to them. HOWEVER, the good news is they will look at the maps and pictures and ask questions.....so maybe we are building something for the future. Anyway, I'm not really sure how to define the target reader. For me this was a very good book. It covered the history of Rome from creation to its fall. It is amazing how the Roman Empire impacted the world then and how that lingers into the present. This book hits all the highlights along with the negative impacts on those conquered and occupied by Rome. As mentioned, the pictures and maps are nice and held the "kids" interest for a while. The Romans brought culture, art, literature to the known world and developed roads, aqueducts and building that still exist today, some of which are still in use. Sadly, while benefitting for these things, the conquered counties/peoples suffered death, oppression and even slavery under that same rule. Overall, this is a very good read, it flows well, is informative and held my interest. It might be a review for some but there were some new bits of information as well. Good read and maybe your "kids" will read it or at least begin to develop an interest in history.

I think this book is great. It is set up perfectly as though it is a school book to use in class, but also moves seamlessly between chapters if one wants to keep going. Another great thing are the knowledge test exercises. They are all different. From fill in the blank, word searches to writing a story as if we lived in that time period. I would definitely recommend this book for kids who enjoy learning and fun activities to cement what they learned. The illustrations are fantastic, as well. Real paintings from the time period and pictures of actual busts of the people.

Important information but dense and difficult to read because of print size

I have read books on Ancient Rome before, but I still learned new things from this little book. It was easy to read and full of information about who and what was around before the Romans, how the Roman had constant battles with the Greeks but ended up learning so much from them. They used Greek through the Roman empire. The book explained how this empire grew and split several times. Being a fan of I Claudius I was pleased to see that he was mentioned along with Caligula and Nero. It revealed who Marcus Aurelius was and his role fighting the barbarian tribes. It went on to explain the final split into the eastern and western parts, with the east part surviving the fall of Rome and becoming the Byzantine Empire. Overall, this was an interesting read and one that provides a great deal of information.