The very first I heard about a book from the Stories of Great People series was when my friend
sheila responded to someone's query on the
SecularCM Yahoo Group about age-appropriate books on Shakespeare. Knowing that our kids' taste in books was quite similar, I checked out the book she recommended,
Shakespeare's Quill. While trying to find more books by the author, Gerry Bailey, I unearthed a whole motherlode of highly-visual, well-written titles on a variety of historical figures and history/ science topics.
The Stories of Great People series profiles a number of famous names--from Marco Polo to The Wright Brothers. Bailey's Crafty Inventions series provides a number of titles that would be a good science/ art complement to studying both ancient and modern civilizations. For instance, the
Early Civilizations title discusses how the ancients probably used pulleys and then provides ideas for an experiment. A page on the usage of inks provides a t-shirt printing activity idea.
A page from Columbus' Chart
A page from Early Civilizations
Although these books aren't as tongue-in-cheek as the
You Wouldn't Want To series and don't have the bowel-curdling humor of the
Horrible series that DS likes, they are a lovely feast for the eyes and a good choice if you just want to dump the curriculum and spark bunny trails for a while. No dumbed-down language. Liberal use of fun typography. Definitely worth a peek if you're looking for illustrated books with a good balance of serious/ humorous text plus just-enough depth to whet the appetite for further study.
Oooh will have to go on a search for those!
ReplyDeleteI owe you an email but am only thinking in 1 minute bursts atm so blog comments are all I can manage!
Hey Kerrie! I completely understand :) I'm so glad we can at least find time to chat this way :)
ReplyDeleteKaren, thank you so much! I'm very grateful and honored.
ReplyDeleteSuji, the books look super! Thanks for posting about them. I will definitely be on the lookout for this author.
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