5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This Homeschooling Family Loves it!, 16 Dec 2008
By M. Jines "Melissa" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: You Wouldn't Want to Be a Roman Gladiator!: Gory Things You'd Rather Not Know (Paperback)
My 9 year old son is studying Rome as part of our unit study and I picked this book up because I thought that it looked interesting... well, I completely underestimated it!!! He devoured this and I believe that his independent research of Rome outside of "class" is a result of the clever illustrations and nibblets of information that come across in interesting ways throughout this book. I went ahead and ordered the books on Pompeii and Roman Soldiers and he absorbed them with the same hunger and speed. This is a series that we will be adding to our history studies for sure. I could not recommend this more - it is fun and education, just what school should be!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fun Facts in a Kid format, 22 Nov 2009
By Sonya "readaholic" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: You Wouldn't Want to Be a Roman Gladiator!: Gory Things You'd Rather Not Know (Paperback)
I really like this series of books for children. It's the fascinating stuff that makes history so interesting. This book packs that information in a wonderfully illustrated book. Nothing bloody, but it definitely shows what happened (men in stocks and chains, swords, etc.). The characters are cartoonish, but very realistic. Kids will learn the different kinds of gladiators and their style of fighting; what the daily life of a gladiator was like; rules governing gladiators; how slaves were treated and a lot more. Entertaining and educational at the same time. Definitely for 4th grade and older.
Highly recommend this series. Would love to see something similar for 2-3 graders.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An entertaining, historically solid book - for 4th graders and over (a history teacher's review),, 14 Jun 2009
By DWD "DWD's Reviews" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: You Wouldn't Want to Be a Roman Gladiator!: Gory Things You'd Rather Not Know (Paperback)
I just discovered this series and I've been reading a few of them for fun this summer.
"You Wouldn't Want to Be a Gladiator..." is entertaining and it contains solid, accurate history presented in a visually interesting format.
While I've been looking a few of these over for my own personal entertainment, my almost 4th grade daughter has been sneaking them out of the stack and reading them without any encouragement from me. Imagine! Kids surreptitiously reading history!
The book details the life of a gladiator that is captured as a slave in battle in Gaul. We follow him to his sale in the market and what kind of jobs he might have been sent to (in the mines, as a galley slave, on the farm, etc.). The slave is sent to gladiator school and we learn about their training, what they ate, the different types of gladiators and how they were punished. We learn about different types of gladiator fights and how gladiator fights were generally organized.
Well done. It should be a welcome part of any Rome unit from 4th grade and up.