Welcome to an innovative and reader-friendly approach to medieval history, one that combines visually appealing infographics, whimsical cartoons and lively, informative text. Each spread offers a snapshot that highlights an aspect of the diversity and intercultural dynamics of the medieval world, from Europe to the Byzantine, Ottoman and Islamic empires.
Readers get the inside scoop on crusaders and caliphs, Mongols and midwives, as they read about expanding trade routes, power shifts, conquests, adventure, and persecutions. From the daily life of the medieval child to Rabban bar Sauma’s extraordinary pilgrimage, the result is a colorful and varied picture of what life was like a thousand years ago. For example, did you know:
-5% of babies in English peasants’ homes died from pig bites?
- what medieval workers did for a living?
- you could buy a Turkish horse for 455 cartloads of dung?
- the best way to stop the unstoppable knight?
- A Viking longship is the length of two of today’s school buses?
- who was most likely to die from the Black Death?
- how Rome and Constantinople rose and fell?
Shapiro’s meticulous research is brought to life by Ross Kinnaird’s historically based, humorous, illustrations. Who would imagine medieval history could be this much fun!
Denya 5A
ReplyDeleteI'm going to rate this book 7/10 because I found the book a little glum at some points. It's also a little hard to understand some of the maps there are. Other then that, the book was awesome! I liked the parts about the castle's different defences, and an attacker's advantages, the information on viking's ship's to, like the fact that when the wind's not blowing, the vikings have to paddle their own boat.
Sydney 5A
ReplyDeleteI give this book a 8 out of 10 because although it was interesting but it was also a little dull at times. It was good because it had some humour. I learned quite a bit about what religions they had (like catholic, jewish, etc) and I also learned where the rich people lived and how they prayed according to their religion.
Matthew, Jones
ReplyDeleteI give this book a 10\10.I really like the illustrators technique. I liked that they included the Silk road andVikings because when a lot of people think of the medieval times they think of knights and castles but thats not all. I found it funny when a king gave land to a noble the noble would give some land to a knight and ect. Its sad that the black death killed 90%of orphans, the highest percentage. I recommend this book to you because there is a lot of humour but interesting facts.
Raphaelle5A. I rate this book 7 out of 10 because it was very interesting. What I really liked about this book was all the cool diagrams and pictures. My favorite parts of this book was about food, the black death, the silk road and the black death. I only wish there was more writing than diagrams in this book otherwise it was very good.
ReplyDeleteJulian5/6 C
ReplyDeleteI am going to give the book 9/10. I thought it was a good book. I liked learning about all of the castles and wars, the cool part was that they showed all the different types of warfare. I found the part where the dead guy was like “would you quiet down up there” to the people in the castle. I found it was nice that all the religions were closer back then, but also they were bad to each other to.