The Ancient Aztecs

Greenberg, Imogen & Isabel. (2017). The Ancient Aztecs. London: Frances Lincoln Children's Books.

32 Pages, Grades 3-6, Historical Graphic/Comic Picture Book, ISBN 1847809502

The Ancient Aztecs is one of the four books in the series of ancient empire books by Imogen and Isabel Greenberg.  All of their books follow a similar style as far as content, illustrations, and layout.  This book in particular focuses on the history of the Aztec Empire.  The text includes both narrative and speech bubbles resembling a comic book.  There are several topics this book addresses: rulers, the city of Tenochtitlán, the Aztec calendar, gods, an origin story, sacrifice and afterlife, wars and warriors, society and daily life, art and poetry, the Spanish conquistadors, and a few others.  Included is also a map and a timeline.  Overall one of the goals of the book is to show children that "the Aztecs were normal people, just like us."

Personally, I had a lot of mixed feelings about this book.  Initially I was drawn to the book because of the shape/size and artwork.  The artwork did not disappoint; Isabel Greenberg maintained an Aztec theme throughout the book and included just the right amount of details.  I did, however, feel somewhat disappointed with the text.  I am a fan of comics/graphic novels, that being said, I did not appreciate most of the speech bubbles in this book.  Much of that text repeated what was said in the novel or it made all of the characters sound like children, which could in fact make kids think that the Aztecs were just like them.  Examples of the dialogue include "Woo-hoo!" and "Oh yeah? Come over here and say that to my face!"  Reading text boxes like these make it clear why this book did not receive an award for social studies.  Although, children ages 9 to 12 might find this book entertaining.  Other than the illustrations, I also liked that there were labeled sections that were brief and for the most part interesting.  I feel like having the students create books like this while studying ancient history would be much better than simply having this book for students to read.  I would not buy this book, but I appreciate the book as a mentor text for a wonderful social studies and language arts project.