G is for Gladiators

Children's Literature - Carrie Hane Hung

From A is for archaeologist to L is for legion and closing with Z is for Zama, readers will explore interesting information about ancient Rome as they go through the alphabet reading about Roman customs, law, and more. One part of the text that is located with the illustration introduces the letter, word, and topic. The other part of the text appears on the panels. On the S is for schooling page, there is a brief explanation that children in Rome attended school, but readers will find additional descriptions about what the Roman students studied and the materials they used in school in the sidebars. The layouts vary from page to page. The different locations of the panels seem to distract the flow; the text on the illustrations and the panels seem to compete for where the eye should move next. At the beginning of the book, students will find a map of the Roman Empire indicating its location in the world and its relation to current countries. Throughout the alphabet book, there are watercolors illustrations. Readers looking for specific information will need to browse the book because there is no table of contents or index. A downloadable teacher guide is available at the publisher's Web site. The book will draw readers' interest on a specific topic or area of ancient Roman history for further investigation. Other books in the "Sleeping Bear Alphabets" series examine different cultures. Reviewer: Carrie Hane Hung