Anne Millard

I don't remember who gave this book to my kids (or even which kid actually received it, come to think of it), but I owe them a debt. It's a fabulous picture book that packs a tremendous amount of history into just a few pages! The illustrations are wonderful, and you could spend a good chunk of time just looking at them and discussing them with the child of your choice before you even get around to reading the text. Once you do read it, however, you'll need to spend another chunk of time show more looking again, because Anne Millard gives you even more things to look for--some that even involve going a few hundred years back looking for clues to things you'll find happening in the future. This book has so much in it to engage the reader, I suspect he or she won't even realize that they're actually--gasp!--learning something along the way. Now that my kids are beyond the picture book stage--or so they tell me, anyway--I've actually brought this one to school for my junior high classroom. There's so much in it to support things I teach in sixth and seventh grade social studies...plus, if students have nothing better to do, I can always suggest they try out the "Where's Waldo"-style hunt on each page, looking for the time-traveling historian Henry Hyde. :) show less

A Street Through Time recounts the entire history of Western Civilization through a cross-section view of a single street along a river. From the "Stone Age" through "The street today," double spread illustrations show a changing street through each major period of Western history. Measuring roughly 12" x 10", this is an over-sized book so packed full of information that it could take days to absorb everything.

The illustrations are replete with detailed figures engaged from every walk of show more life engaged in every manner of activity. Because there is so much detail, important activities or information are enlarged with explanation in the white space margins, as in this example from "Iron Age (600BCE),"

"TOP MAN
After the warriors and the priests, the blacksmith is the most important man in the village."

The accompanying illustration may be found in smaller scale within the street's cross-section, offering the reader the opportunity to hunt (Where's Waldo-style) and find the highlighted people within the larger picture. To add fun, a "time traveler" character is included on each spread.

It does not take a keen eye to see that the general landscape and the placement of important town features (places of worship, security and commerce or trade) change little over 12,000 years. Modern buildings are often located in the exact same place as those from hundreds or even thousands of years earlier. Churches are enlarged, amphitheaters decay, buildings are expanded and subdivided, but much remains from earlier days.

This is a fascinating way to look at history, and will make conceptual sense to children who are intensely familiar with their own streets.

I can't say that I know the proper audience for this book, but I loved it. The publisher suggests ages 10 and up, though I suspect some younger children will find it intriguing as well.

Includes prefatory information, contents, timeline, glossary, index, credits. One complaint - the descriptive phrases embedded within the illustrations are, given the small size and great detail of the artwork, extremely difficult to see.

http://shelf-employed.blogspot.com show less

This is a great picture story book. In a series of fourteen detailed illustrations, the story of human history is told by exploring a street as it evolves from 10,000 BCE to the present day. We see the landscape and daily lives of the street's inhabitants change, as the small settlement grows into a city, is struck by war and plague, and gains trade and industry. Throughout, children are asked to study the photos in order to find a time traveler in each scene, as well as to pick out show more interesting details, encouraging them to pore over the unique illustrations and more easily learn about the historical background. While most appropriate for ages 9 and up, this book works as a teacher-guided picture-book for 1st and 2nd grade children. show less

I loved this book as a kid. I would sit and pour over it for hours looking at the pictures and reading the sections that caught my interest. Since it was published in the UK it has a different perspective on world history than I was taught in school.

It is still Euro-centric, but you will be hard pressed to find an english-language history book that isn't.

There are a lot of little projects sprinkled throughout the book that kids can attempt on their own. This includes a water elevator (made show more with straws), a mosaic and fresco, felt tapestries, and so on.

There is some nudity in the earlier chapters, but nothing graphic (just boobs). show less