We’ve had a few of these ancient ‘Hide and Seek History’ lift-the-flap books for years now and they still get plenty of use, which I think is mainly down to their amazingly colourful design! Just look at the beautifully vibrant The Greeks by Jonny Marx and Chaaya Prabhat – this ancient world definitely isn’t blank and boring!
Hide and Seek History: The Greeks covers a wide variety of mythological stories but also provides lots of historical information on the lives of men, women, children and slaves, as well as as topics like battles, theatre, clothes, sports. There’s also a good double-spread on how we find out about the past and different types of archaeology. So, it fits in a surprisingly huge amount! All the text is balanced out by the fantastically vibrant illustrations throughout and more than 80 layered flaps to open, making it engaging and interactive.
Our copy was down off the shelf yesterday so we could investigate Heracles’ labours, after seeing an impressive version of him at Corbridge Roman town earlier in the week.
The wheel of labours for Heracles is such a clever way of adding them all without it turning into a book about just Heracles. Some of the flaps are ‘doubles’ too – so a flap under a flap! – which is extra pleasing!
It’s been a great book for the 7yo to investigate himself now he’s older and a much more confident reader – when he was much younger we used to just explore the pictures and flaps while telling stories about them ourselves :’)
wee classics 