Story of the World, Vol. 1: History for the Classical Child: Ancient Times

"The Story of the World" is world history simplified for small children. The author recommends using the text as a starting point, and pairing it with other texts such as "The Usborne Encyclopaedia of World History". With these two (very important) caveats in place, I cannot praise this series highly enough. The text is accessible and covers world history broadly and with a focus on relevance to society today. Some bogus reviews accuse the author of religious bias: this is simply not true. World religions and mythology are treated fairly and respectfully. What is true is that this book begins at circa 7000BC. At NO POINT does the author claim the world began in 7000BC (or that the world was created in seven days or any other religious belief) this is simply the point at which the book begins. (Indeed "The Usborne Encyclopaedia of World History", which we remember the author recommends, puts the creation of the Earth at 4550000000BC.) If you are a Young Earth Creationist, this book will neither support nor refute your beliefs. If you are not a Creationist, this book will still neither support nor refute your beliefs. This is simply a history book which starts at 7000BC. If you are desperate to teach your five year old child about human history before 7000BC, you'll need another book ("The Usborne Encyclopaedia of World History" is excellent, but Creationists should look to their Bibles). This series is a good story to tell children to kindle their interest in history. It covers major periods in history, world-wide and in roughly chronological order (making it easier to make sense of trends and consequences). A timeline is given in the back of the book to assist with learning.

Lovely book for little minds. It is true to fact, interesting and simplified for little brains. My little girl is eight and she is studying Ancient Egypt and Israel at elementary school - this really helps her to connect the dots and expands on school text books. The author has also introduced some made up characters (like a little stone age girl) which make it easier for children to relate to historical events of thousands of years ago. Very well thought out and written. (I am learning too!!)

We love this. Listen in the car with our five year old, he laps it up but there is plenty I am learning and captivated by. My husband thinks there is a bias towards a Christian centric world view, with the history of Old Testament areas, I haven't heard those tracks but totally forgive it for tyre wealth of info. I love the story of the discovery of silk, I can just see the Empress having picnic lunch and unwinding the cocoon that fell in her tea. This really is alive, living history.

Charlotte Mason style history book! We love how it incorporates history with the Bible. And we like the stories in it! We use this as a read aloud book for our 6 yr old, and she loves it. It’s never boring to listen to.

The book is written in an easy to understand style. It kept many of my children entertained for years. Can't recommend highly enough.

Good book but from a creationist view, I am a Christian but I don't think God needs us to worry if he had limits when creating as those are clearly a human idea. This book does back up agricultural and migration discoveries of the last 20 thousand years but doesn't go beyond that. https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/human-journey/ I'm backing up this book with some anthropology in my teaching.

I’m really glad that I got this book for my children. I was recommended this from a friend and I’m really glad she did. I’m learning along side my children. Suitable for all ages.

Excellent book I cannot recommend enough. I do not homeschool my children but use this book almost every day to teach history chronologically after school, to try to make some sense for them. Great book !

オリエントからローマ帝国滅亡に至るまでの世界史の教材です。アメンホテプの宗教改革、ハンムラビ法典、アテネの民主政、インドのカースト制といった内容が大変わかりやすく説明されています。英語は平易で、ネイティブでなくても十分読みこなせるので、英語の学習者にもお薦めできます。

The book was very interesting ,the contents of the book depicts ancient cities rulers

I am a homeschooling mom with a preschooler, a kindergarten student, and a fourth-grader. This book is great for all of them. I will alternately read aloud or play the audio version (in the car, during lunch, etc.). They love it! The chapters are short and easy to understand. The book itself is not intense and it wasn't made to be. The earliest age is six! If the language is too sophisticated or dry, the children will lose interest. I would too! There are lots of stories and myths from some of the different cultures of those times. It gives my children insights to different cultures and their traditions. The book is also helpful to enrich their understanding of what was happening in the world around the same time as some biblical events. It puts into perspective events like Abram moving, Joseph in Egypt, David, all the fighting and wars, etc. But in a way a child can grasp. As a Christian parent, it is hard to fill in the historical gaps or make sense of certain events. This book certainly helps. As far as I can tell, this book in no way, modifies or takes away the gospel message found throughout the Bible and history. So, for the reviewer who complained about the author's adding that Abram's father was scared, so they moved the family......duh! Who wouldn't be scared about constant fighting, being killed, and the threat of losing everything? Many ancient peoples moved for those very same reasons. It isn't unreasonable to make that jump, especially when you are trying to explain these complicated topics to a young child. The negative reviews are garbage. What are people expecting? The Economist? Newsweek? An SAT study guide? This book is an introduction (condensed version) of the ancient world. The accompanying activity book has additional resources and activities for people who want more information. As for the claims of how a person felt at a particular time, of course that is speculation! Much of history is speculation! We use what we can find evidence of and fill in the gaps based on the collective information we have for that time period. I delve more into the information with my older child by using the activity guide and test booklet. If you're not keen on using this as a textbook, then read it to your children before bed. I guarantee your kids will get excited about history. Isn't that the goal of education? Not to get them to memorize a bunch of nameless faceless facts, but to get them excited, spark their curiosity, and encourage them to learn independently. This book is certainly a tool that can be used for that purpose. I have purchased the next book and my family cannot wait to begin that book as well.

Homeschooler here - thought I'd use this read aloud book to dull and lull my 3.5yo to sleep BUT IT DID THE EXACT OPPOSITE 😂😂. Both my toddler (TODDLER!!!) and myself were ACTUALLY captivated by the stories that we stayed awake reading chapter after chapter and wrecked our bedtime! I can't believe I'm actually saying this but gosh what a real difference a "living book" makes in terms of engagement and attention! I never liked or cared for middle eastern history but gosh this book held me up at night. Also, bought this as my first ever living book and wanted to know what the fuss was about. Did not disappoint at all!

My grade 1 daughter and I bought this book as a suggestion from a friend. We homeschool and wanted to add a bit of history to our curriculum. This book turned out to be one of our best purchases all year! My daughter loved every chapter and begged for me to read "just one more chapter" every time. We followed up each chapter with a craft, activity, or coloring page from the accompanying workbook. This book is so full of information that I was learning a lot too. My husband and mother have both asked if they can borrow the book to read as they both found it interesting too! All the information is written as a big long storyline to connect the different parts of history and it is written with enough detail to keep all readers engaged, and written with simple enough language that everyone understands,too! I can not give this book any less than 5 stars. It is worth its weight in gold. Not only will we be re-reading this book, but we will be ordering the next in the series. This is the best history book I've ever read.