Bible Lands by Jonathan Tubb. Library section: 10 A: Youth, Religion and Values. This is an Eyewitness Series book by Dorling Kindersley, one of my favorite publishers. This series must have about 50 volumes on nonfiction subjects: nature, history and manmades. All of them are designed with excellent color photos of landscapes, animals, and artifacts, as well as maps and old-time prints, whatever will get the point of the subject across to kids and adults.
This book tells the story of the Holy Land, and its many kingdoms, its geography, history and the ancient civilization of its peoples. It includes maps, pottery, jewelry both everyday and precious, common foods, local animals, murals of battles and booty, weaponry, armor, statuary, household wares, and models of Solomon’s temple and Herod’s hilltop palace of Herodium. I don’t know of any kid who would not find this informative book fascinating and then go off with his Legos and try to recreate a temple or fortress of the era. It’s like having a museum at your fingertips.
I like these books for the great photography of artifacts, but more than that, nonfiction books such as this increase our children’s knowledge of history and the world exponentially. Just on one page I find new words for kids such as “shekel,” “ingots,” “Mount Sinai,” and “Canaanite.” Non-fiction not only increases our kids’ vocabulary and knowledge of the world, I will share a secret with you: nonfiction is used on FCAT reading tests to test a student’s reading comprehension. So if your child reads only fiction they will be at a disadvantage on the FCAT.
Therefore, in addition to fiction, help your child select nonfiction books to take home to read along with you. Examine the maps, artifacts, and photos with your child. Try making something you see in the book along with your child, perhaps flat bread, a toga from a sheet, “coins” from play-doh stamped with objects from around the house. This makes history come alive for them and it’s good family fun. Though we cannot all travel to the Holy Land, perhaps watching a film together such as King of Kings, Spartacus, or Ben-Hur would fit the bill for more information about the Holy Land at the time of Christ.
You will be seeing more of these Eyewitness Series books introduced from time to time – my library wish list contains four or five more and I don’t believe they are generally found new in bookstores. They were newly published 20 years ago but can still be found online. They are as attractive and appealing now as they were then, with their page layouts with crisp white backgrounds. I love them. I think they are my favorite nonfiction series for kids, and adults enjoy them too. Come ‘n get it! ( )

Eyewitness Books