Ancient World Magnified

By David Long

Illustrated by Andy Rowland

Reviewed by Mia Macrossan

David Long is the author of Pirates Magnified, Egypt Magnified and Castles Magnified. In Ancient World Magnified he covers significant ancient civilisations. It will appeal to  everyone fascinated by ancient history, it even comes with its own magnifying glass, to encourage a young reader to look closely at each page.

As you explore each double page spread you learn what life was like and also find out about some of the key moments in history a long time ago.

The minute, but clear illustrations by Andy Rowland show a detailed scene from each culture with about three paragraphs of text. The fun bit is that each page gives you a list of ten things to find with a short line of explanation. This is where you can use the magnifying glass, although you can actually find the listed items without them.

Time periods include the popular and familiar Egyptians, Greeks and Romans and also the Aksum and Kush kingdoms of Africa, the Qin dynasty of China, as well as the Mayans and Aztecs of the New world.

This is the kind of book you spend hours poring over each scene discovering new things each time you look. Great fun for everyone but especially those aged 5+.

Wide Eyed Editions 2021