Usborne Time Traveler

I should probably order another copy of this book because my children have such a hard time sharing it! As the product description states, the book covers four historical civilizations by introducing the reader to a family who lived during each time period. The drawings are amazingly detailed and, as another reviewer stated, they fill each and every page. There is so much information, but it is engaging rather than intimidating, even for my five year old son and seven year old daughter. The various members of the families in each time period take us home, into the kitchen, to play, to school, to work, to the market, to battle, to a feast, to a farm, and of course, to Pyramids, castles, the Colosseum, and on and on. We get a really informative window into what the people of each time and place had available to them (waterways, food, housing materials, weaponry) and learn how they used each to their advantage. All of this is presented in bright colors and kid-friendly illustration (cartoonish, rather than text book looking- sort of reminds me of Where's Waldo?). They could look at it for hours. We have used this as an invaluable resource for our Classical style homeschooling, but the children often look at it apart from school time. I highly recommend it to anyone for any elementary aged child.

I originally purchased this as a resource to use in homeschooling my six year old. We are studying ancient cultures, and I feel that the Usborne format is appealing to younger children. However, when it arrived my ten year old grabbed the book and spent the next four hours reading!The book is hard covered and is really four smaller books that have been put together to form this one large one. It contains a section on Knights and Castles, Viking Raiders, Rome and Romans, and Pharaohs and Pyramids. Each section has you sest your time helmet to travel to your destination and then introduces you to the people of the time. Food, burial, dress, and every day life are covered in the sections. The buildings are shown from both the outside and a cut-away to the inside. There is a ten question quiz at the end of each part of the 130 page book. The answers to the quizzes are in the back of the book.It's really a lovely book to compliment a homeschooling curriculum or just for a child who loves to learn. I'm very pleased with the purchase.

My children loved learning about parts of history through this book. The illustrations were engaging.

My 8 year old son enjoys reading this daily for part of the homeschool curriculum we chose. It has very basic information about certain time periods, but is a good introduction for young elementary kids.

I was disappointed with the revised version of Usborne Time Traveler. I own all four of the 1993 edition books and expected this to be a compilation of those paperback books into one hardback book. Although this 1998 version still has a lot of information, a lot of the information is left out from the previous editions. It is missing significant amounts of the main text on each page. There used to be captions for almost everything going on in the full-page illustrations, but now it has up to 50 percent less text per page. There are also some sidebar pictures missing. The coloring of the drawings gives the impression that the artwork is crisper in this new version. It is less cluttered looking, but this is at a cost of less historical explanation. It is still an enjoyable book if you don't know what you're missing, but if you are replacing older editions you'll be disappointed. I am seeking out a used copy of the 1993 version (also available compiled in hardback form if you look hard enough).

This book is a favorite of ALL of my kids, both boys and girls. We originally bought it for the Sonlight 1st grade home schooling program. My older boys kept "borrowing" the book because it had information on Vikings, Knights, Romans and Egyptians. The younger girls loved seeing what clothes people would wear and what houses families used to live in. This book has lots of information in it that is very interesting and understandable to both boys and girl. The four sections focus on a time showing thru both words and text- What people eat and wore?- What their towns or cities were like?- What their civilizations are still famous for?- What their families looked like?- What did their kids do for schooling?Highly recommended. We have bought a few copies as gift for friends for 6th thru 10th birthdays.

All 4 grandkids 5, 7, 9, 10 have asked for this book repeatedly.

My 10 year old enjoys reading this book and I enjoy the quizzes incorporated in the books. It isn't an easy read aloud, but for individual study, it's great.

My daughter wanted the 'Time Traveller' book that she had as a child, for her 5 year old son who has taken to drawing pictures in cross - section. And she remembered the book fondly. Our original is now used for school projects by an older granddaughter, and is in poor condition. Now long out of print. As is this edition, so I had to buy it second hand,The cover is not promising - but the content appears to be just like the old edition. I was only able to establish this by looking at videos online. I think made by Usborne sellers in America.