The Thrifty Guide to Ancient Greece by Jonathan W. Stokes Book Review

 

The only guidebook you need for your next time travel vacation!

The Thrifty Guide to the Ancient Greece: A Handbook for Time Travelers is a snappy, informative travel guide containing information vital to the sensible time traveler:

  *  How can I find a decent tunic that won't break my bank account?
  *  Where can I score cheap theater tickets in ancient Athens?
  *  What do I do if I'm being attacked by an army of one million Persians?

This two-color book is filled with humorous maps, reviews of places to stay and top attractions (Don't miss the first-ever Olympics!), and tips on who to have lunch with (Alexander the Great and his horse, Bucephalus, naturally). If you had a time travel machine and could take a vacation anywhere in history, this is the only guidebook you would need.

My Thoughts:

I’m excited to tell you about the newest book The Thrifty Guide to Ancient Greece A Handbook for Time Travelers. My kids enjoyed the other two books in the series Ancient Rome and the Revolutionary War and I knew this would be a big hit for my history loving family.

The book is told from the perceptive of Time Corp. The books are set up as a vacation guide book in the future. The year is 2164 and this is a guide to help you navigate history as you travel back in time. You may need some information on how to ride a horse, where to eat, people of interest to have lunch with, what to wear, and some places and dates to visit.  The book is intended for ages 8 through 12. This is a hardback book with 114 pages. There are several illustrations throughout the book. Not full colored but in a monotone black, gray, white, and a teal color that goes well with the book. The illustrations are pretty detailed.

You will learn about some ancient place during the Ancient Greece time period, a few different people from history, culture, and some other fun off the wall facts. 

We learned a lot about the social history and the culture of Ancient Greece. While we just touched on the topics in some area it gave us a good overview of Ancient Greece that may spark some interest to dig into history more. 

The book starts out going over some fun basic of time travel like going over your time machine basics and what to do if you get stuck in a time loop. How do you understand ancient Greek? No problem because Time Corp offers a Universal Translators which help you speak and understand Ancient Greek at a cost of $9,999 with a mail-in-rebate. It comes with a warning of side effects. The book starts out silly to grab your attention. 

The story takes you to Athens in 480 BC. It gives you a map of downtown Athens along with some shopping info, the Assembly of the Athenian democracy. You’ll read a bit of information on the latest fashion of both men and women.

Just a bit of a warning if you don’t like going over Greek Gods or oracles. It does cover the Oracle of Delphi, Zeus, Artemis, and a few other mentions. It doesn’t go into a lot of details. Whenever I pick up a book on Ancient Greece I expect that to be covered since it was a bit part of the culture. 

You will travel to Sparta. We learned some information about growing up in Sparta. Did you know that Sparta men spend a lot of time training for battle to make great soldiers? A famous Spartan food that you may want to try if you’re brave is “Black Broth.” Yuk, is all I can say.

Some battles are mentioned like the Battle of Thermopylae, the Battle of Salamis. You learn a bit of history about the Persian Empire and the events of the battles. 

There is a bit of history about the Olympics and the Golden Age of Greece. Some references on the Greek architecture, art, and philosophy.

My son was glad that it had a section on Alexander the Great. It gives a bit of history on him from his education and his horse Bucephalus. It goes over his ten year conquest of the ancient world and some of his battles.

The last section goes over the fall of the Greek Empire.

Overall, a fun approach to history. These would be great for kids who don’t care for history that much. I don’t know many kids who don’t like to joke around. While they are laughing they can be learning about history.

I received a free copy of this product from Penguin Random House in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this information accordance with the FTC Regulations