Well written, lots of beautiful illustrations . Great for kids of all ages . A useful tool for supplementing school projects or as part of a home - school theme on ships .
Disadvantages:
To do this book justice, you really need the time to examine each page carefully .
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Another masterpiece from the winning duo of Stephen Biesty and Richard Platt, and part of the Dorling Kindersley "Cross-Sections" series is "Castle". This book shows the inner workings of a 14th Century English castle, and as always, provides so much information, you'll want to come back and look at it again and again. Stephen Biesty's talent as an illustrator is immense, and he and Richard Platt (who writes the book) are brilliant in their fields.
As with other books in the "Cross-Sections" series, each two page spread gives a full page illustration of the inside of the castle, with a particular topic in mind. Richard presents a one to two paragraph editorail, and then lines from the drawing come out to sidebars with smaller illustrations and fuller information on some aspect of that topic. Some of the topics included in "Castle" are Defense and Seige, Garrison and Prisoners, Building The Castle and Living Like A Lord. Plenty in here to whet the appetite for mediaeval English history, methinks.
Dorling Kindersley are about the best in quality children's publishing, their books tend to be factual and seem to last forever as far as interest level. Aimed at children, probably about 8-10 year olds (to use on their own) I have always found these books by Beisty and Platt to be interesting enough for adults too. I might say that I've bought this for my grand-children (for future use), but I'm the one who keeps poring over it right now, and it is marvellous. I am engrossed.
These are absolutely brilliant to use in a home school curriculum, or to support school projects at home. In England, there are enough castles still standing to be able to provide the opportunity to visit one or two in the course of studying the topic. Or even just for pleasure. Little boys like nothing more than to be in a "REAL" castle where knights of old once lived. Children could also be encouraged to note the similarities and differences between the different centuries.
This truly is a wonderful book for every child's bookshelf.
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