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Goldie Hawk Books

Coinciding with the highly anticipated British Museum exhibition ‘Troy: Myth and Reality’, this is the fascinating story of the destruction of an ancient city and the many ways it has been told and retold over time.

Featuring fearsome warriors, powerful goddesses and menacing monsters, these tales have captivated children and adults for thousands of years. But are they really just tales? Where was the real Troy? And why are people still so obsessed with this legendary city?

Accessible, intriguing and funny in equal measure, this is the perfect book to get children excited about Greek mythology and digging up the past.

This is a charming laser-cut book designed to explore houses and homes in different periods of British history.

The chronological guide begins in the Late Middle Ages and travels through seven different eras, finishing at present day. Fold-out sections and intricate laser-cut flaps allow little hands to open up the houses, peek through windows and observe different family members engaging in activities in and around the home. Broader topics such as clothes, food and architecture are considered and how priorities and lifestyles change over time is gently drawn out across the different sections.

The houses depict a snapshot of upper-middle-class life, but provide more of a vehicle for considering key changes in attitudes, activities and fashions of each area rather than a close representation of everyday life. The present-day house, for example, is an eco-house complete with flat-pack furniture, triple-glazed windows and smart technology powered by rooftop solar panels. Jump back 100 years in time and you’ll find a 1920s suburban redbrick three-storey house with William Morris wallpaper, jazz on the gramophone and a smartly dressed couple on their way to the pictures to see a silent movie.
Each snippet of information builds on past eras and adds to a picture of societal change over time. The book flows excellently as a start-to-finish read but also has plenty of potential to zoom in to just one particular era or to follow a single thread throughout (learning how bathrooms evolved from a hole in the wall to a chamber pot to modern-day ensuite will always entertain young children). This book will be enjoyed in KS1 classrooms and help pupils explore historical causality and change when covering the Houses and Homes topic.
 

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Stone Girl Bone Girl

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