Nonfiction / Biography and Autobiography

Eyewitness Books: Ancient Egypt
By George Hart

Eyewitness Books are a wonderfully done series of non-fiction books. They really provide students with a first-hand inside look on things. The Eyewitness Book I read was on Ancient Egypt. George Hart, the author provides real pictures of artifacts, both stone and pottery vases, necklaces, and hieroglyphs. The artifacts are so interesting to look at, it is so interesting to see the kinds of things ancient Egyptians used in everyday life. The book also gives a break down of the ancient Pyramids. It tells what they were made of and shows were the entrance(s), chambers, and galleries were located. The book also shows mummified bodies and explains how they were embalmed. It is so wild to think that they were able to preserve bodies the way they did! One of the ways the book talks about is using lined layers and wrapping the body up tightly. Another way would involve digging a pit and carefully arrange the person’s body in a sleeping position. From there, they would throw sand on top of the body because the sand absorbs the water from the body allowing it to preserve. I think this is such a neat book to use in the classroom. It would be a great way to introduce students to ancient Egypt and how the civilizations located on the Nile River lived. It talks about everything from Pharaohs to ordinary people. It provides real pictures of artifacts and I think students would be really in to learning about it if they were able to explore this book. I think it would be fun to incorporate technology using this book by having each student in the class create a podcast regarding his or her favorite fact or artifact in the book. Once the students have chosen and recorded their artifact they could gather together and listen to each others podcasts. I think it would be really fun to get them talking about different artifacts!