Rome and Romans

Not every successful small book makes a good big book but this visit to Ancient Rome, which has its inspiration in Usborne’s Time Traveller Rome and Romans , works extremely well in its magnified form. Cartwright’s splendid annotated drawings will lead to lively talk in group and class contexts. Particularly striking in large format are the pictures of ‘At the Public Baths’, showing clearly how underground pipes bring fresh water and how hot air travels through tunnels to heat the baths, and ‘In the Streets of Rome’ showing the magnificent roads and buildings of Rome.

The book is visually dynamic – we get a strong sense of citizens of different status going about their lives at home, at school and at work and enjoying their leisure shopping and at sports events like The Circus and at The Chariot Racing. Smaller series of pictures at the head and foot of some pages show us the stages in gladiator combat, procedures in cleaning clothes and in preparing food. These could be models for children’s own writing.