Babylonians

The Babylonians was a big improvement over the other two books written by Elaine Landau in this series, Cradles of Civilization. The other books are The Sumerians and The Assyrians. There was much more detail and the work flowed better in The Babylonians. It kept the children's attention better. There are 14 illustrations including one map, photos of artifacts, photos of present day sites related to the Babylonians, and several colored drawings. Considering this is written for 9-12 year olds, there are not many illustrations. There is other information about their way of life that is interesting. Topics covered include Hammurabi and his rule plus his legal code, Kassite rule, the Elamite and Assyrian plundering of Babylon, and Nebuchadnezzar II's rise to power (spelled Nebuchadrezzar II in the book?).The type is slightly larger with large space between lines and wide margins. It is easy on the eyes for children to read. The text on the first five pages in the three Landau books is virtually the same. The only major difference is the map is changed for whichever topic--Sumerians, Assyrians, or Babylonians--is being covered. The map is well done, however, not all locations are shown. While the Kassites and Elamites are discussed, their place of origin is not shown on the map. Neither are the Zagros Mountains labeled.Paging starts on page 11, text through page 50, timeline text of Important Dates pp. 51-52 (not facing pages), Notes p. 53 (bibliography?), Glossary pp. 55-56 (no pronunciation information though), Further Reading p. 57, and Index pp. 59-61 (nice touch). So for a 64-page book there is only 39 pp. of text, and the format is smaller than usual, too. This book, with fewer pages, actually seemed more coherent than the other two books in the series. Because the cultures do interact with each other, I think it might have been better to publish a combined text. Overall, this book was much better written. This isn't just my opinion either--my 9 and 11 yr olds said the same thing when I asked their opinion of all three books. I still would vote for combining some of The Assyrians and The Sumerians into the main text of this book!