ReadItDaddy's Picture Book(s) of the Week - Week ending 2nd February 2018 - "Meet the Ancient Romans / Egyptians" by James Davies (Big Picture Press)

Our first Picture Book(s) of the week are a fantastic pair of new non-fiction titles covering two of our favourite eras of history..

The new "Meet the..." range from Big Picture Press and James Davies covers both the Roman and Egyptian empires, with innovative and cool designs and illustrations and of course a ton of amazing facts about both.

We took a look at "Meet the Ancient Romans" first, with a really superb and humorous look at the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, and all the key moments, amazing characters and historical happenings laid out as a series of fun spreads throughout each sturdy book.

Find out all about Roman Emperors, chariot races, gladiatorial combat - with excellent infographics and key facts to help kids engage with a fantastically interesting subject.

Who on earth would want to be a roman gladiator? Glad-I-Aint-One!

"Meet the Ancient Romans" by James Davies is out now, published by Big Picture Press. 

The second volume in the series was even more warmly received by C, who is still such a keen history buff - and this one was bang on topic for school studies at the moment.

"Meet the Ancient Egyptians" again covers the amazing Egyptian empire, their amazing Pharaohs and rulers, their incredible advances in science and architecture and of course there's a good dose of mummy fun in there as well, I mean you've GOT to have at least one passage about pulling people's brains out of their noses - it's the LAW when it comes to a book about ancient Egypt.

Once again, James Davies' cool art style and infographics bring the subject to life in a fun and innovative way. There are so many bits in this that made us giggle, but there were also lots of "Oh wows" and "Really? I didn't know thats" along with the more chucklesome stuff (look out for the 'treasure' found on the battlefield in one spread).

We really liked the section on Egyptian gods, which we could really have done with just before Christmas as C was set a quiz at school about them (though thankfully we managed to find a bit of info on the internet - no substitute for a good book though!)

This is great fun, in fact both books are the perfect entry point for kids who want to delve into history.

"When someone asks you if you're a god, you say YES!"

"Meet the Ancient Egyptians" by James Davies is also out now, published by Big Picture Press. 

(Both books kindly supplied for review).