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The Best Nonfiction for Beginning and Struggling Readers • All titles available as ebooks

Cities Through Time

Series of 12 titles *

Would you like to travel to ancient Rome? What about visiting Manhattan before there were any skyscrapers? This fun series takes readers on a journey through different eras in the history of some of the world’s biggest cities. Narrative text shares historical facts while colorful illustrations show off buildings and people from the time period. Thought-provoking questions, bonus facts, and a timeline add even more to make this series a real trip!

Title   ATOS Format Qty
Cover: Mexico City Mexico City
Cover: New York City New York City
Cover: Rome Rome
Cover: Tokyo Tokyo
Cover: Athens Athens New! Spring 2024
Cover: Baghdad Baghdad New! Spring 2024
Cover: Delhi Delhi New! Spring 2024
Cover: London London New! Spring 2024
Cover: Cairo Cairo New! Fall 2024
Cover: Chicago Chicago New! Fall 2024
Cover: Paris Paris New! Fall 2024
Cover: Singapore Singapore New! Fall 2024
Interest Level Kindergarten - Grade 3
Reading Level Grade 2
Category Leveled Readers, Nonfiction
Subject Geography
Copyright 2024
Publisher Bellwether Media
Imprint Blastoff! Missions
Language English
Publication Date 2023-08-01
Dewey 937-974.7
Graphics Full-color illustrations
Lexile 460-600
Guided Reading Level N
Features Glossary of key words, Index, and Table of contents

Reviews

PSLA Review of Cities Through Time

These colorful titles aim to present the history of major cities from ancient to modern times. London begins in 50 CE with Roman invaders, then showcases 1066 BC with the crowning of William of Normandy, then early 1600s with Shakespeare’s theater, next 1666 with the plague and Great Fire of London, followed by 1890s’ industrial revolution, 1941 German bombing of the city, and finally, 2023 with the coronation of King Charles III. The book ends with a one-page timeline that summarizes each of the seven highlighted times and shows the country on a world map. Includes a glossary (11 words), further reading, index, and Factsurfer link, which leads to three useful kid-appropriate websites about the city. “Blastoff Jimmy’ begins the book with three Mission Goals (one is “learn about different challenges London has faced”) and ends the book with three “Beyond the Mission” tasks (such as “which part of London’s history would you like to visit?”) and occasionally Jimmy shows up on pages to give more facts. The series currently has 12 titles.

THOUGHTS: This is an ambitious idea and helpful in grasping a long-range perspective, but the jumps in time can be surprising (World War II to King Charles III). Recommended for browsing and for generating questions about the city which students could seek to answer. Supplemental purchase.

SLJ Review of Cities Through Time

These titles survey the history of ­cities from ancient to modern times. Seven important dates are highlighted, each with a few sentences of information in colorfully illustrated spreads. A cartoon character adds a fun fact on some pages. Coverage spans over 1,000 years, so the seven dates can offer just snippets of history, which can be hard to follow without context or background knowledge.

We learn that India rebelled against British rule in 1857, for example (Delhi), but are not told how the British came to power there. The changes at a page turn can be abrupt: in one spread, tanks and soldiers are invading Iraq in 2003, while the next section jumps to a cheering crowd at a soccer stadium in 2022 (Baghdad).

VERDICT: While the illustrations are appealing, covering such wide time spans with sparse information limits usefulness for young readers.

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