You Wouldn't Want to Be a Slave in Ancient Greece! (You Wouldn't Want To¿)

Rating:
Summary: Any woman in history
Review: This is an informational story about you, as a mother, living near the Black Sea in the 5th century B.C. in a Scythian Tribe. You are captured by the Greeks, separated from your family, and sold in Athens. The story gives a detailed description of the typical life of a slave woman in Greece. Some tips for you to remember: "Forget about your family because you will probably never see them again. Work hard if you want your owner to treat you well. Be nice to your owner's eldest son - one day he'll become your master. Improve your cooking, or your owner won't feed you at all. Don't get caught trying to escape - you will be punished or sold." The book has great pictures and a lot of interesting information presented through a story. This book makes it fun to learn about the life of a female slave because it doesn't feel like you're studying! This is a good book to read aloud to primary students and have in the classroom library for students up to the intermediate level.

Rating:
Summary: Fun and informative for grade schoolers
Review: You can tell the difference between someone who has studied history and writes a children's book and someone who hasn't a clue how to find information. Unfortunately, Macdonald doesn't provide a bibliography at all or address where she got her information so I had to take off one star. However, her information seems quite solid and I love the way the book is laid-out with the life journey of one woman into slavery and her experiences there. There are obviously several of the less pleasant things left out of this book such as sexual slavery, but it did contain more reality than I had expected for a book at this level. The sidenotes are great and they actually give you the advice the cover of the book promises. There are also hints for the younger audience that things are not simple, even something they've been taught is an evil, is actually quite varied and complicated by gender, race, age, skill, and personality.