Here’s a list of just about all the books we used in our Ancient Greece Unit study. We didn’t read all of these books cover to cover – some didn’t get used at all, but most got flipped through at least. Several of the non-fiction books I read, and then relayed information to the kids I’ve made a few notes below on our favorite or most useful books.
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Non-Fiction
– The Story of Clocks and Calendars
– Great Wonders of the World
– The Atlas of the Classical World
– The Spartan Hoplites
Funball picked this one off the shelf and really enjoyed it, becoming our resident expert on the Hoplite Soldiers!
– Eyewitness Ancient Greece
– Ancient Greece Crime and Punishment
– Ancient Greece Daily Life
– I Wonder Why Greeks Built Temples
– The Usborne Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece
Towards the end our our Greek unit I did spend a week reading this book cover to cover. We knew much of the information already, and it was really good to hear it all again concisely and solidify everything.
– Science in Ancient Greece
– Aristotle
– The Greatest Doctor of Ancient Times
– Measuring the Earth
– Archimedes: Mathematical Genius of the Ancient World
The above three books I read – they were great, really useful for me to be able to pepper in bits of information to the girls and apply to our math and science work.
– Ancient Greece
– You Wouldn’t Want to be a Slave in Ancient Greece
– Archimedes and the Door of Science
I really enjoyed this book – again, I read it to to pass information on to the girls.
– Big Ideas for Curious Minds
– Magic Tree House Fact Tracker: Ancient Greece and the Olympics
– Blast Back! Ancient Greece
Activity Books
– Spend the Day in Ancient Greece
We used quite a bit of this book, dedicating one day to being “in Ancient Greece. It was very useful to have on hand and we enjoyed a lot of the activities.
– How to Draw Ancient Greek Stuff Real Easy
I picked this up on Amazon because we had so much fun with Ralph Masiello’s Ancient Egypt drawing book and he didn’t have a Greek book. This book was pretty good – and the only option I found – but it wasn’t as good at the Ralph Masiello one!
– Ancient Greece!: 40 Hands-On Activities to Experience This Wondrous Age
I highly recommend this series of books. We loved the Ancient Egypt one and also used a lot of the Geology book. These are and will be one of my first searches for any unit study we might do.
– Tools of the Ancient Greeks
This book also had some great hands on activities. We didn’t end up using it much because we had so much good content from the other books.
Mythology
– D’Aulaires Book of Greek Myths
The Book of Greek Myths is a classic. We had my husband’s childhood version and the girls loved reading through it over a week or so.
– The Gods and Goddesses of Olympus
This book, by Alikii, was great to have to have on hand, because my 6 year old was able to read it to me. It was accessible to her, and good reinforcement after hearing all the D’Ailaires’ myths.
– Mythological Creatures
My girls both liked this book, Funball used it as a reference book.
– Pegasus, the Flying Horse
Both girls also enjoyed this book…I can’t quite remember if I ever read it!
– Adventures of the Greek Heroes
– Black Ships Before Troy
– The Wanderings of Odysseus
I have to say, neither girl loved either of the above two books as I read them – they’re long, and quite dry. However, they did absorb the stories and we’re really been talking about them and referring back to them ever since. They were perhaps a little old for my girls and I wasn’t sure about reading them aloud, but I’m glad I did.
– Do Not Open! The Story of Pandora’s Box
– The One Eyed People Eater: The Story of Cyclops
– Surprise! Trojans!
All three of the above books were wonderful! They are easy-readers, perfect for Daisy. It was so nice to have easy readers with some good content!
– The Greek Gods
Fiction
– Hades Speaks!
I was thrilled to see an Ancient Greek companion to Anubis Speaks! Funball loved Anubis Speaks – Daisy less so, however by the end of Hades Speaks she was totally on board too. We’ll read Thor Speaks! too!
– Goddess Girls (several books in the series)
We didn’t discover this series until quite late in our unit, but Fungirl is now working through the whole series. It’s a nice series and includes a lot of nods to the mythology. We’ve discovered we like quite a few books by this author, Joan Holub. She also has “Little Goddess Girls” for younger readers, “Heroes in Training” following the gods rather than the goddesses. We’ve read some of those too – and we will read “Thunder Girls“, based on Norse mythology!
– Magic Tree House: Hour of the Olympics
We haven’t read this one yet! Daisy is reading Magic Treehouse books to me, and she didn’t want to read the book out of order! We’ll read it in the next week or so. I’m sure it will be great.
– Percy Jackson Series
I read the first two in this series myself and thought they were fine. We’d just finished reading all the Harry Potter books, and another heavy series was just too much for us. I’m sure we’ll enjoy them next time around.
– Mr Archimedes Bath
– What’s Your Angle Pythagoras
– Pythagoras and the Ratios
– The Librarian who Measured the Earth
All four of the above books explain a mathematical concept in a picture book manner with a historically inspired story. They were great for our cross curricular themes and giving a gentle introduction, especially for Daisy.
We cover a lot in books! Did we miss anything amazing that you read? Comment and let me know!