Oxford Children's History of the World

Excellent book for teaching children the history of the world. Great curriculum, all important events well narrated with beautiful and appropriate illustrations.

The Oxford Children's History of the World by Neil Grant is thinner than I expected (I suppose I ought to have paid more attention to the specs instead of focusing on "Oxford"), but there's a lot of information packed into 180 pages. It's arranged in the following five sections: * Ancient World * Medieval World * Early Modern World (from Renaissance to North American Colonies) * Modern World (American Independence to end of 19th century) * 20th Century. The first edicion was published in 2000, but the paperback edition of 2005 mentions the World Trade Center and the Indonesian tsunami on the last regular page. Topics within the sections are presented on two-page spreads with fitting illustrations. At the end of each section are a timeline and a "Who's Who" for the period. It is very much a secular book. In the "Early Cities" topic of "Ancient Times" it states, "Religious beliefs developed from peopple's need to explain things they did not understand." It was a marked difference from Bauer's Story of the World in which there are times it is difficult to distinguish between myth and fact. The book does not shy away from religious discussion entirely: Another topic in "Ancient Times" discusses the four religions that originated during this time period--Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, and Christianity. The first sentence on that page states, "In history, religion has been one of the strongest influences on the way people think and behave." The first pages of the Medieval section is devoted to the beginnings of Islam and the Arab empire that was larger than the Roman empire. I started reading this to my son this evening and he liked it very well--didn't want to put it down at bed time, in fact. He may just pick this one up on its own. I might consider using some of the activity books for Story of the World for project, map, and additional reading ideas while using History of the World as the spine if I wanted to avoid the Christian bias in the Story of the World. I think some religious households might have an issue with the statements regarding evolution and other secular biases such as those I mentioned earlier. In our house our son is enjoying both descriptions of history.