Book Description

Now this bestselling series from Silver Dolphin is available in a Spanish edition! Children can unravel ancient secrets in this series of 64-page books. Each includes a timeline, glossary, and index for easy reference, as well as a fully illustrated display board and miniature replica to build, along with a handy box to store model pieces. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Incredibly Funny Book!
Henry VIII and his Chopping Block is a wonderful way to get kids to actually want to read history! It's all unbelievingly true. Henry VIII is a fun and funny way to learn about England's most famous king. What were his manners like(you may not want to know)? What were the secrets of his six wives? Get the chief executioner's tips on how to die. Read the Tudor Tatler, the newspaper of the time. Get the truth on how they dressed, what they did, what they ate, and...how they died. Read Henry's "Secret Diary". Be sure to read the "For the Chop" letters which tell the real storys on famous people who died because fat Henry lost his temper(quite normal, compared to other things he did).This first quality book is complete with HISTARICAL cartoon illustrations. Buy it today. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Color photos, original maps, and interactive sidebars
This new addition to the 'Enchantment of the World' series provides color photos, original maps, and interactive sidebars of facts and information on a country which too rarely receives its own book. Facts about the country are numerous and outline the peoples, culture, and economic and political changes of the nation. ... Read more

Book Description

Now this bestselling series from Silver Dolphin is available in a Spanish edition! Children can unravel ancient secrets in this series of 64-page books. Each includes a timeline, glossary, and index for easy reference, as well as a fully illustrated display board and miniature replica to build, along with a handy box to store model pieces. ... Read more

Book Description

A wealth of traditions are celebrated in Germany through folklore and legends, festivals such as Karneval and Oktoberfest, and in the creativity of artists and thinkers. This interesting new book introduces children to medieval cathedrals and castles on the Rhine River, classical music from Bach to Beethoven, and a folktale from Bremen. ... Read more

Book Description

Young readers are transported into the maze of a medieval castle under siege as they mount a dungeon rescue and overthrow a feudal overlord.This book combines the adventure of battle with the challenge of navigating mazes and cracking codes, making lessons about medieval people and their activities fun.

Los jóvenes lectores se transportan dentro de un laberinto de un castillo antiguo directamente al corazón de una batalla con un malvado señor feudal y para cumplir la misión hay que encontrar la salida y descifrar el mensaje oculto. Estas aventuras sirven también como lecciones acerca de culturas y actividades del pasado, el presente, y el futuro. ... Read more

Book Description

More than 1,000 years ago, the Vikings were the most powerful people in Europe. Their homeland was Scandinavia--the countries we know as Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, and Norway--but their search for new land and trade turned them into great travelers and explorers. In this volume, Neil Grant explores and explains the Viking world, devoting each double-page spread to a particular aspect of life in Viking times. From farming and religion to ships, navigation, and war, The Vikings provides a comprehensive and lively picture of life during this fascinating period. ... Read more

Book Description

She was a child of wartime, for her country had long suffered under the twin horrors of invasion and civil war. At thirteen she began to hear the voices of saints. At seventeen she rode into battle and was proclaimed the savior of France. By nineteen she was dead--burned at the stake as a heretic. Almost five hundred years later she was declared a saint. This is her story, the story of Joan of Arc.

She was an illiterate peasant girl barely in her teens when the voices commanded her to leave her village, take up arms, and go to the aid of the young prince of France. Terrified, she protested--she was "Just a poor girl, who did not know how to ride or lead in war!" Still, she accepted her impossible mission and, during her brief and stunning career, faced hardship and danger, fought with unparalleled bravery, was twice wounded, and became a legend. The English, who began by mocking her as a foolish "cowgirl," soon came to fear her awesome power. The French were so inspired by this miraculous child that the tide of the dreadful war began to turn.

In the latest of her acclaimed series of picture-book biographies, Diane Stanley brings history to life through carefully researched, vivid narrative and sumptuous, gilded illustrations inspired by the illuminated manuscripts of the time. She takes readers to Joan's humble village of Domremy, to the splendid chambers where she first met the timid prince for whom she would sacrifice everything, to the battlefields where Joan fought so bravely, and to the dark and terrifying halls where she was condemned to die.

In this magnificent portrait of Joan of Arc, award-winner Diane Stanley once again reveals to young readers the richness and excitement of history.

00-01 South Carolina Book Award Nomination Masterlist (Grds 3-8)

Reviews (5)

A superb illustrated juvenile biography of Joan of Arc
I was sold on Diane Stanley's juvenile biography of "Joan of Arc" after reading her two-page prologue, "A Hundred Years of War," in which she explains the political situation in France when King Charles VI of France died two months after King Henry V of England. If you remember the end of Shakespeare's "Henry V," then you might be familiar with the agreement that was put into place following the Battle of Agincourt, but how many young readers have really studied that particular bit of English history by the Bard? However, in these two pages Stanley explains why the 19-year-old dauphin, Charles VII, was still uncrowned when Jeannette d'Arc in the small town of Domremy began receiving heavenly visions.

Stanley tells the familiar story of Joan of Arc in considerable detail, but always with one eye towards understanding what was happening from the perspective of a seventeen year old girl who road into battle and was proclaimed the savior of France and the other on the historical context of these events. She also pays attention to the details, listing the specific charges for which she was tried and the "confession" that she signed, which are often omitted from similar juvenile biographies, and at the end of her story she pays as much attention to the aftermath of her martyrdom as she did to setting up her life.

Throughout the book Stanley makes nice use of historical texts, dropping a lot of quotations and specific lines from the trial transcript and other sources. The text is accompanied by Stanley's illustrations, which are done in the style of the illuminated manuscripts of the time. As a result young readers will get a solid understanding of life of times of the woman called Joan of Arc by history, and be able to inform their friends that the new hit show on CBS should really be called "Jeanette (or Janet) of Arcadia."

Diane Stanley does it again!
A beautiful book! Diane Stanley carefully traces the life of Joan from her humble beginnings to her tragic end. The book even comes with a pronunciation guide to help those of us who haven't been to France. Although the language is at 8+ year old range, my 5 year old daughter loves it anyway!

Wonderful for kids
Not only was this an accurate portrayal of Joan of Arc's story, it was wonderfully written and illustrated. I would recommend it for anyone who is starting out in learning of the saint. It is educational and enjoyable for a child.

A role model for girls
This is a beautiful book that I purchased for a seven year old girl. I am a medievalist and the depictions in this book of the clothing, etc. are true to fact. The next copy I buy will be for myself as I collect good children's books on medieval times. Every year I publish of list of children's book on this time period that I recommend in our group's newsletter and this book is high on the list.

MY DAUGHTER LOVED IT
My 8 year old daughter devoured this book in one sitting, which is amazing considering that she hardly ever reads non-fiction. (She was not pleased at the not-so-happy ending, however!)

Beautiful illustrations. ... Read more

Book Description

History buffs, budding anthropologists, and anyone who loves a good story will enjoy the fifth installment of the award-winning Voyages Through Time series. Ancient Greece visits the cradle of Western Civilization to look at the philosophers, architects, and statesmen who helped lay the groundwork for society as we know it today. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Great Explanation of Situation
This is, simply, a great book. And simple is the best word for it. The book doesn't skimp on facts and gives the best and most accurate overview of the history of the war in Kosovo that I have read. This book is relatively short; if you need a lot of detail I recommend "A Short History of Kosovo" by Noel Malcolm. But Malcolm's book, despite it's title, is very long and detailed. If you just want an easily read book with great photos that will leave you understanding the situation, this is it.

Accurate Overview of Situation
I have lived in Kosovo for the past 2.5 years, and during this time I have done a great deal of research on the history of Kosovo, the conflicts between the Serbs and the Albanians, what led to this war, the affects of it on people from both sides, etc. I have lived and worked among the Albanians, helping them rebuild completely destroyed homes and lives, but I have also been to many intact Serbian monasteries in Kosovo, and prayed with Serbian Orthodox Christians in their churches. I came to Kosovo immediately following the war in 1999 and saw firsthand the immense physical and emotional devastation caused by this war. I say all of this only to qualify my opinion because it is very different from the other review of this book.

I thought this book was excellent, and that it acurately explained the situations, not only in Kosovo, but also in Bosnia and Croatia, that led to the many wars the Balkans have experienced in the last few years. I found the book to be extremely unbiased. It is a very quick read and therefore somewhat limited in scope, so I would recommend Noel Malcolm's "Short History of Kosovo" for anyone seeking greater depth.

Obviously, what happened in the Balkans is a very sensitive topic for many people. But if you are looking for an short but accurate portrayal of the war in Kosovo, I highly recommend this book.

What is propaganda?
This book is for the naive, those who are not intellectually curious, who are perfectly happy with the ersatz of the official U.S. government sponsored propaganda, no matter how shamelessly imperialist and biased. In brief, this book is destined to indoctrinate schoolchildren and high school pupils. Ms. Andryszewski, as proves her oeuvre, is one of those hired authors writing on various social and political issues who always shows the U.S. as the Good Daddy helping the weak, the poor and the oppressed around the world. Unfortunately, the truth is to the contrary, Uncle Sam turns out to be a bully that brings much of the world's death, suffering and destruction. Not different in Yugoslavia, Kosovo and the Balkans. There Clinton's government with his Secretary of Hate, Madeleine Albright, suddenly fell in love with the most terrorist Islamic organization in Europe, the UCK (alias KLA). But Ms. Andryszewski does not mention UCK and other Albanian criminal killing, intimidation, and other sorts of discrimination directed against the Serbs and other minorities in Kosovo taking place for several centuries, and recently intensified after Tito's death. Ms. Andryszewski does not want to see this ethnic cleansing performed by Albanians as it would not be convenient as an explanation of the U.S./NATO bombing of an independent country fighting a secessionist insurgency. Neither she mentions that this bombing was contrary to all the international laws, that it broke the United Nations charter, the NATO charter and even the U.S. constitution. When she talks about genocide she does not base her opinion on facts either. So far about 2000 victims (most of them Serb soldiers and Albanian guerrillas) were found in Kosovo despite the loud trumpeting of such a genocide by U.S. corporate mass-media before the bombing. Moreover by using the word genocide she offends the real victims of genocides, such as those of the Holocaust. Clearly Ms. Andryszewski's sympathies are on the Albanian side. When she talks about the past history of Kosovo, she places the ancient presence of both nations on more or less equal grounds. She forgets that all the historical artifacts, architecture, cemeteries, churches, art, literature and archeological excavations show and prove only the presence of the Serbs, not of the Albanians. When Ms. Andryszewski talks about the situation in Kosovo and Yugoslavia during World War II, she mostly omits the criminal collaboration of Albanians with the Nazis (for ex. the infamous SS Waffen Skanderbeg division) and their active participation in extermination of Serbs. When talking about the break-up of Yugoslavia, Ms. Andryszewski does not want to look to the roots of that development, to U.S./German sponsorship of secessionist forces, to CIA and U.S. mercenaries training of insurgents, to U.S. greenbacks and weapons constantly flowing to those forces. The Racak massacre as described in the book is blamed on the Serbs. Ms. Andryszewski does not mention the facts that put in doubt such a conclusion, that the KLA tampered with the bodies, that it was likely that the KLA staged the massacre. The Rambouillet negotiations fiasco is again the fault of much demonized Milosevic. She forgets to mention that the a priori prepared agreement contained a secret military annex demanding an occupation of whole Yugoslavia by U.S/NATO forces and in fact was an ultimatum or a new "Munich" that only traitors could sign. Ms. Andryszewski does not make a big deal out of U.S./NATO "collateral damage" (as expressed by NATO's Goebbels - Jamie Shea), i.e. of hundreds of civilians killed, of destroyed houses, hospitals, schools, churches, cemetaries, factories, TV station, bridges, trains, buses, cars, of polluted by depleted uranium and cluster bombs environment. I guess, the new master race is in its rights to kill those insects - Slavs. She is very optimistic about the present and the future despite the ongoing facts. The ethnic cleansing and murder of Kosovar minorities under the protection of KFOR proceeds unimpeded.

Ms. Andryszewski's book is a distortive and manipulative piece of propaganda trying to justify criminal actions of her government. AVOID THIS BOOK, find the truth youself! ... Read more