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A review by letstalkaboutbooksbaybee
The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon
informative
2.0
Read for 1922 Newbery Award winner challenge
The newbery is awarded for “outstanding contribution to children’s literature” and this think it’s worth noting that this was the first ever book to receive this award. Based on definition alone, yeah I guess it deserves the award.
But this book is so incredibly dense and boring that there is no way any child, present day or 1920s, would sit down and read it cover to cover or listen to it being read aloud to them for very long.
It’s a very oversimplified complete history of mankind as we know it (or as dear old Hendrik knew it in 1922) (although it has been updated over the years and the most recent editions even mention Facebook and Twitter). Spanning from cavemen to ancient Egyptians and the Greeks to the American revolution, going into simultaneously too much detail and not enough somehow.
Would I recommend this book to any kids I know? Definitely not. There are so many great chapter books about history that tare far more entertaining than this one.
But I can appreciate what it did at the time.
The newbery is awarded for “outstanding contribution to children’s literature” and this think it’s worth noting that this was the first ever book to receive this award. Based on definition alone, yeah I guess it deserves the award.
But this book is so incredibly dense and boring that there is no way any child, present day or 1920s, would sit down and read it cover to cover or listen to it being read aloud to them for very long.
It’s a very oversimplified complete history of mankind as we know it (or as dear old Hendrik knew it in 1922) (although it has been updated over the years and the most recent editions even mention Facebook and Twitter). Spanning from cavemen to ancient Egyptians and the Greeks to the American revolution, going into simultaneously too much detail and not enough somehow.
Would I recommend this book to any kids I know? Definitely not. There are so many great chapter books about history that tare far more entertaining than this one.
But I can appreciate what it did at the time.