You want pyramids with that? (Horrible Histories: The Awesome Egyptians - Terry Deary)

Member Name: CaptainD

Product:	Horrible Histories: The Awesome Egyptians - Terry Deary
Date:	23/03/07 (535 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Presents history in a fun and accessible way...

Disadvantages: ... a bit over-simplistic and repetitive...

Horrible Histories is a range of books aimed at getting kids interested in history by telling them the whole truth - with all the awful horribleness that “teachers don’t like to tell you”. So, basically it’s a school textbook with added squishiness and comedy factor. They’re priced at £4.99 each retail, but I got a box set of ten from The Book People (you know, the people that visit the workplace) for £10. The set includes such other titles as “The Angry Aztecs”, “The Ruthless Romans”, and “The Blitzed Brits”. The books appealed to me because they looked a little like 1066 And All That, a book I love, in its style and presentation. I wasn’t quite right about that, but I still enjoyed this first book out of the ten (they were in no particular order but this was the one I chose to read first). So here we have The Awesome Egyptians. (Unfortunately this being a kids book means that the word “awesome” is chronically over-used!) I’ve always been quite interested in the Egyptians especially, which is why I chose this book to begin my reading of the series.

So why, you might be asking yourself, did a 30 year-old get a bunch of kid’s books in the first place? Well, although these books are primarily designed for kids, you really don’t need to be a kid to enjoy reading them – well, perhaps you need to be a kid at heart. I’ve always had an interest in history but, at the moment at least, I really don’t have enough interest in one particular era or culture to buy and read in-depth textbooks of a thousand pages or so about it. Therefore this book, with its 128 pages (low-quality print but not to the extent that it was a problem) with its light-hearted style, frequent cartoons, and lots of humour suited me perfectly. Don’t be misled though, this book has some really interesting information in it. It’s not crammed with facts and figures, but it certainly doesn’t shy away from them. It’s not intended to present a watered-down view of history, just present a completely non-watered down view in a format that’s very easily accessible.

We read about the Pharaohs, how they lives, how the hierarchical system in Egypt worked, the way the Nile floods were vital to the farming, why pyramids were build, various myths surrounding the tombs, tomb-robbers, the Egyptian gods, and much more. The information is presented in a matter-of-fact manner, however there are several viewpoint questions, a few quizzes, and even instructions on how to make some items. (For instance there is an experiment on the power or magic of a pyramid shape – you are shown how to make your own pyramid, and you can place some cheese inside it to see if it goes off or if the pyramid shape really does have amazing preservative powers!) There are also instructions on how to make your own “shaduf”, which was a contraption used by the peasants to lift heavy objects easily. The book also contains many anecdotes that help to keep it interesting. There’s also a section on how to understand hieroglyphics, which is pretty cool even for us oldies!!

There are also a large number of cartoons throughout the book, which are mainly for adding humour though sometimes they do help to tell a story / put the point across. Unlike the aforementioned 1066 and All That it is really aimed at kids not adults, so as an adult reading don’t expect to find them all hilarious. The writing style very occasionally does get tedious because of its simplicity and repetitiveness, however for the most part is nice, easy reading but still very instructive.

Overall Horrible Histories: The Awesome Egyptians is a very easy read and much more educational than I’d originally thought. Obviously it’s not for serious students scholars, but then they presumably wouldn’t even consider reading this (apart from for some light relief, perhaps!). It does a very good job in presenting history in an accessible and entertaining way, and I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the books I have (I don’t know how many are in the whole series but it’s certainly more than ten!). Look out for it in a set though, I’m really not sure I’d pay full price for the individual books even though I like them (though this is largely due to the poor print quality rather than the content.). If you’ve got a child and would like to encourage them to be more interested in history (or just want them to get better marks at school!), or just have a passing interest in history yourself without the time or inclination to go more serious academia, this is a good book for you. (For kids it’s the most effective type of education – educating without the student realising that’s what’s happening!!)

The text is by Terry Deary with cartoons provided by Peter Hepplewhite. Deary has written all the books in the “Horrible Histories” series, but several different illustrators have been used. Hepplewhite’s style is fairly typical of all of them, being of a style that is rather like the political satire sketches found in many newspapers. Not exactly visually amazing, but certainly appropriate for this book and often quite funny.

“The Awesome Egyptians” is available for £3.99 new or from a penny on the Marketplace, and is also £3.99 from Play.com. The trouble with The Book People is that you never know when they might stock it again; the particular ten-pack that I have is exclusive to them, but there are various other collections available, so check for them online – they’re a lot cheaper than getting the books individually.

Summary: Maybe not awesome, but certanily a good, surprisingly detailed history book