ReadItDaddy's Picture Book of the Week - Week Ending 5th May 2017 - "Spot the Mistake: Lands of Long Ago" by Amanda Wood, Mike Jolley and Frances Castle (Wide Eyed Editions)

Our Picture Book of the Week this week serves up history with a twist(ory). The brilliant "Spot the Mistake: Lands of Long Ago"
Here's an innovative approach to showing just how much fun and how interesting history can be.

Take a trip with some intrepid time travellers who are visiting various civilisations and eras in history to uncover some very peculiar anomalies and anachronisms.

In each page spread, the wonderful illustration contains a ton of detail - and many objects that really shouldn't be there, ready for you to pick out and spot.

For example, did Bronze Age Man really eat sweetcorn and catch dinosaurs for breakfast? Did they use ladders and make tombstones?

How about the Ancient Egyptians. Did they really have cute pug dogs, and decorate their tombs with pictures of scary dragons?

Some of the mistakes are more subtle than others, and spotting all 20 in each page spread is very tricky indeed.

The explanations that go along with the answers (which are thoughtfully provided in the follow-up pages once you've busied yourself solving the puzzles) are quite fascinating, extending the fun of learning a little bit more about when things were first introduced - and more importantly where they were first used too!

It's a fabulously presented and brilliantly illustrated book, with a quirky sense of humour and tons of engagement. We do love a big hardback non-fiction title that's full of fun learning experiences and this ticks all our boxes nicely.

Charlotte's best bit: Absolutely nailing all the mistakes in the Egyptian spread in about 10 seconds flat (that's definitely one of her favourite periods in history to study).

Daddy's favourite bit: A fun and innovative way to make history more engaging and involving. What a fabulous idea!

(Kindly supplied for review)

"Spot the Mistake: Lands of Long Ago" by Amanda Wood, Mike Jolley and Frances Castle is out now, published by Wide Eyed Editions.