World History - Prehistory/ Ancients Booklist

This is our Ancients list. It is being compiled as we cover this period in world history. I will also include authors and series fiction/ non-fiction we like when we come across them in our studies.

PREHISTORY/ ANCIENTS
Suggested Spines and Unit Study Resources

1. The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia Of World History by Jane Bingham
2. The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child: Volume 1: Ancient Times by Susan Wise Bauer
3. The Story of the World: Activity Book 1: Ancient Times by Susan Wise Bauer
4. Story of the World, Volume 1: Ancient Times Audiobook CD by Susan Wise Bauer and Jim Weiss
5. A Child’s History of the World by VM Hillyer
6. A Little History of the World by E. H. Gombrich (and/ or audiobook)
7. Learning Through History Magazine
8. Appleseeds/ Calliope Magazines
9. National Geographic Magazine

Prehistory

1. When Fish Got Feet, Sharks Got Teeth, and Bugs Began to Swarm: A Cartoon Prehistory of Life Long Before Dinosaurs by Hannah Bonner
2. When Bugs Were Big, Plants Were Strange, and Tetrapods Stalked the Earth: A Cartoon Prehistory of Life before Dinosaurs by Hannah Bonner (both books by Ms Bonner are well and humorously illustrated and were educational to me too)
3. The Magic School Bus in the Time of the Dinosaurs by Joanna Cole (features a good dinosaur age timeline)
4. Bone Poems by Jeffrey Moss (very funny collection of dino poems)
5. The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins: An Illuminating History of Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins, Artist and Lecturer by Barbara Kerley (beautiful pictures and an eye-opening story of Mr Hawkins, the first man to show the world what dinosaurs may have looked like)
6. Walking with Prehistoric Beasts DVD

Prehistory Timeline Project (instructions included)



Evolution

1. The Sandwalk Adventures: An Adventure in Evolution Told in Five Chapters by Jay Hosler
2. The Voyage of the Beetle by Anne H. Weaver and George Lawrence
3. Life on Earth: The Story of Evolution by Steve Jenkins
4. Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story by Lisa Westberg Peters
5. The Tree Of Life: The Wonders Of Evolution by Ellen Jackson
6. Other books on Charles Darwin from the Scientist Biographies booklist.

Early Man

1. The Best Book of Early People (The Best Book of) by Margaret Hynes (good intro text to hominids and prehistoric man)
2. You Wouldn't Want to Be a Mammoth Hunter: Dangerous Beasts You'd Rather Not Encounter (You Wouldn't Want to...) by John Malam (hilarious but slightly gory account of prehistoric hunters and their ginormous game)
3. Maria De Sautuola: The Bulls in the Cave (Remarkable Children Series, 2) by Dennis B. Fradin
4. History News: The Stone Age News (History News) by Fiona Macdonald (collection of "articles" related to the Stone Age)
5. Frozen Man (Redfeather Books.) by David Getz (discovery of the 5,000-year-old body of the Ice Man in the Italian Alps - read aloud or independent reading for >9 years old). View 3D images of the Ice Man here.

Ancient Mesopotamia

1. Ancient Mesopotamia: The Sumerians, Babylonians, And Assyrians (People of the Ancient World) by Virginia Schomp
2. Mesopotamia (DK Eyewitness Books) by John Farndon
3. Life in Ancient Mesopotamia (Peoples of the Ancient World) by Shilpa Mehta-Jones
4. Secrets of Ancient Empires: The First Civilizations - First Civilizations (DVD)

Ancient Egypt

1. Seeker of Knowledge: The Man Who Deciphered Egyptian Hieroglyphs by James Rumford
2. Who Built the Pyramid? by Meredith Hooper and Robin Heighway-Bury
3. The 5,000-Year-Old Puzzle: Solving a Mystery of Ancient Egypt by Claudia Logan
4. History News 3000 B.C. - 1100 B.C.: The Egyptian News (History News) by Scott Steedman
5. Boy of the Pyramids by Ruth Fosdick Jones (chapter book; a young Egyptian boy helps catch a tomb robber)
6. Number Stories Of Long Ago by David Eugene Smith
7. The Ancient Egyptians (Myths of the World) by Virginia Schomp
8. Ancient Mesopotamia: The Sumerians, Babylonians, And Assyrians (People of the Ancient World) by Virginia Schomp
9. You Wouldn't Want to Be a Pyramid Builder: A Hazardous Job You'd Rather Not Have (You Wouldn't Want To) by Jacqueline Morley
10. You Wouldn't Want to Be an Egyptian Mummy! (You Wouldn't Want To) by David Stewart, David Salariya, and David Antram
11. You Wouldn't Want to Be Tutankhamen!: A Mummy Who Really Got Meddled With (You Wouldn't Want To) by David Stewart
12. Pyramid by David Macaulay
13. Egyptian Tombs (New First Books) by Jeanne Bendick
14. The Egyptology Handbook by Emily Sands
15. Tales of Ancient Egypt by Roger Lancelyn Green
16. Pharaoh: The Boy Who Conquered the Nile by Jackie French (historical fiction relating to King Narmer)

Ancient India

1. The Puffin History of India for Children 3000 BC to AD 1947 (Vol 1) by Roshen Dalal

Ancient China

1. Chinese Mythology: Stories of Creation and Invention by Claude Helft

Also see:
Myths of the World series
You Wouldn't Want To series


For more living history book ideas visit:

• Paula's Archives
• Sonlight books in Well Trained Mind order