Such a wonderful introduction to 9 different kingdoms from around the world! I hadn't even heard of some of these, but I really enjoyed learning about them. There wasn't space for a lot of detail in such a short book, but there was information about history, religion, architecture, and other interesting aspects of their lives.
My favorite thing was the pictures. They were on a 2-page spread and there were separate action sets all the way around. What makes the pictures so great is that they're full of action, and I imagined every set telling a story.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this

Informative, bright, and engaging! Rise and Fall is a fascinating look at the many empires who have come to and fallen from power over the many centuries. The blend of historical information and fun accompanying art really sets the scene for a child's imagination; I can absolutely imagine a kid poring over this for hours.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5

I am reviewing a digital ARC a received via Netgalley. (I am reviewing many a picture book on Netgalley to get my feedback percentage up because someone on reddit said that the people who reviewing requests actually care about that! 🤷‍♂️)

This is, on the whole, a very nicely designed and illustrated middle grade nonfiction title which presents an overview of a variety of ancient cultures, their unique ways of life and features, and how each declined over time.

Overall it has the feel of a DK Eyewitness book, with short chunks of texts on different subtopics scattered around each spread. However, I personally felt like the illustrations were so detailed that they could have used more text chunks, or even just very brief labels on different objects and features in the illustration. Without more of these, it kind of feels like there are a few scarrtered around the pages but not enough reason to really pore over and appreciate the illustrations.

I did enjoy the mix of cultures represented, a mix of well-known (from a "I learned about this briefly in a history class in the US" perspective) to more geographically broad and diverse.

Overall if one was seeking out a middle-grade appropriate book which features a better variety of ancient cultures than most, I would not want my gripes to deter them from this one.