Book review: History was never cool when I went to school. Nowadays, though, thanks to Horrible Histories, it is the epitome of cool. This book has clearly been influenced by the Horrible History series of books - look at the alliteration in the title for one, Awfully Ancient, Gory Gladiators. But that is no bad thing. If it makes the subject more interesting by focusing on the "oodles of blood and gore and horribly nasty deaths" and it grabs the attention of the reading kids then maybe they will maintain that interest.
This book focuses on the time of the Roman Empire. "What did they ever do for us?" I hear you ask. Well, this book tells you. It covers "Ceasar's sticky end" and many similar ends of other Roman emperors, it tells you what a vomitorium was, and it covers what a Roman's usual eating habits were during a time before fridges in a chapter called "Peacock Brains and Flamingo Tongues." There are some interesting facts here too. Like how the average slave "cost less than a horse or a cow". And how only emperors were allowed to wear purple, anyone else being killed.
The layout is appealing too. There are 32 full-colour pages of text with pictures following the same fun art style as seen on the cover. At the end, there are also some books and websites listed as suggested further reading, although all the books are by the same publisher. There are also some places listed to visit, all in Britain, which might be worth looking at.
On things that could improve this book, it is short at 32 pages so could have been longer (although to maintain interest for the age group and possibly reluctant readers you could say it is better to be shorter).
All-in-all then this is a book that introduces the topic of the Romans and their empire in a fun way that may lead to a maintained interest in history.
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