CM Magazine: The Kids Guide to the Millennium.

________________ CM . . . . Volume V Number 2 . . . . September 18, 1998

The Kids Guide to the Millennium.

Ann Love and Jane Drake. Illustrated by Bill Slavin.
Toronto, ON: Kids Can Press, 1998.
64 pp,, paper, $9.95.
ISBN 1-55074-436-4.

Subject Headings:
Two thousand, A.D.-Anniversaries, etc.-Juvenile literature.
Chronology, Historical-Juvenile literature.

Grades 3 - 7 / Ages 8 - 12.
Review by Gail Hamilton.

*** /4

excerpt:

Did you eat a sandwich for lunch? If so, you were eating a food that's more than four millennia old. The sandwich was popular with ancient Egyptians when the pyramids were built. [It didn't get the name sandwich until about 1700, when the Earl of Sandwich was busy playing cards and ordered his servants to fetch some meat between two pieces of bread.] The ancient Egyptians didn't use bread for their sandwiches; they used flatbreads similar to our modern pita. So grab a pita and make a 4000-year-old sandwich.

Jam-packed with trivia, this fun book takes a look at events from the past and offers suggestions to kids on how they might celebrate the millennium. Some of the suggestions, such as making a time capsule or playing "knucklebones" - a game that has been popular for about two millennia - are related to the book's central theme. Others, however, are only loosely connected. For example, how many kids would go to the trouble of making a papier mache globe just to track the dawning of the millennium in various parts of the world?

The book's colourful cover is an attention-grabber. A table of contents directs readers to 30 double-page spreads, each one covering a different millennium-related topic. Games, crafts, writing activities, science experiments and celebration ideas will appeal to a variety of kids' interests. URL's for web sites that look into past or future millennia or that announce global celebrations for the year 2000 are also given. One particularly interesting feature is the time line covering the years for 1 AD to 2000 AD, which appears on each right-hand page.

Text is simple and written in "kids' language." Black and white pencil sketches as well as highlighted blue boxes, add visual interest. The layout is boxy and fairly busy, but not unattractive. An index is included.

A fun way in which to count down as the millennium approaches.

Recommended.

Gail Hamilton is a teacher-librarian at Bird's Hill School in East St. Paul, Manitoba.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364

TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE - SEPTEMBER 18, 1998.