A Seaport through History

This is an essentially Italian production, second in an excellent series, which takes the history of a type of place through the ages from earliest times to today - giving a large picture of it at every stage of development and lots of ancillary information, conveyed again mainly through pictures. These books are backed by substantial research and the artist has worked with great assiduity to display all so clearly. The bird's eye view is not an easy one, but here one does feel like a bird but flying through time instead of space.

Any child of any age could look with benefit at this book, teaching the concept of change through time as effectively as it does. It needs patience and persistence, but it is rewarding in every way. In National Curriculum terms I suppose it is most appropriate for Ships and Seafarers at Key Stage Two, but it could slot in on many points of study (the treatment of destruction in the Second World War is particularly good, for example). One reservation: this is about European ports, most particularly Hanseatic and Netherlandish ones, and although there are many points of comparison with British ports, there is quite a lot that doesn't apply here.