Non Fiction Children’s Book Review: History Smashers Ancient Egypt

Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

History Smashers Ancient Egypt by Kate Messner is part 11 of the History Smashers series. The series is appropriate for children ages 8-12 and focuses on debunking popular myths surrounding history. Who built the pyramids? Are the tombs cursed? Who discovered King Tut’s tomb? These are just some of the myths and events discussed within this text.

Something I really like about this book is how careful the author is to let the reader know that records from this time are not completely accurate. Artefacts are missing and written history can be misleading. In particular, she states that the dates are often conflicting because the records are so old.

History Smashers Ancient Egypt covers an enormous time period: 8800 BCE to 1922. And while this could easily be an overwhelming amount of information to read, the author not only did a fantastic job presenting it in a clear, concise manner, but organizing it into an easy to understand format. Messner did a fantastic job summarizing these historical events in a clear way that is easy for children to understand.

Illustrations are a huge asset to this text. With so much information the amount of text could easily become overwhelming. However, there are tons of illustrations throughout this book- both humorous and informational. There are comics to make events easier to understand, photographs for reference, and images simply to break-up the text. These images work together to make the information more easier to retain while make the book more engaging.

My favorite part of this book is the “Ancient Egypt Yearbook” which names the ancient gods along with illustrations and what they were worshipped for.

Overall this is an amazing resource for elementary and middle school history. The information is explained clearly for younger audiences and is fun while still informative. It is a great guide to the basics of Ancient Egyptian history.

*** Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Children’s Books for a free copy in exchange for my honest review.