Cities Unfolded; London Through Time by Nick Maland and Angela McAllister (Children's, Non-fiction, 9/10E)

 

July 2015, Frances Lincoln, 16 pages, Paperback, Review copy 

Content: historical information, 

Summary from Quarto

Follow one girl and boy on their adventure down a London street as they journey through time. As you open this concertina format, a continuous street scene unfolds, each of the panels takes you back to a different point in our capital's past. An key events panel and timeline woven into the illustrations at the bottom makes history visually accessible at a glace. Iconic and historic monuments including St Pauls, St Brides, Westminster, the London Eye and Trafalgar Square are included in street scenes that show how people lived in our city through the ages.  

Key time periods included are as follows:

The Roman settlement; Medieval period (the black death); Tudor times (the invention of the printing press); The great fire of London; 1700s (the building of St Brides); Georgian London; Victorian times and the industrial age, Edwardian London (suffragettes and early cars); WW1 (soldiers marching down the streets); Between the wars; WW2 (The Blitz); The 1050s (black cabs and Routemasters appear); Elizabeth II's coronation; Modern day London in Trafalgar Sq.

- See more at: http://www.quartoknows.com/books/9781847806895/London-Through-Time.html#sthash.GeK4j79S.dpuf

Follow one girl and boy on their adventure down a London street as they journey through time. As you open this concertina format, a continuous street scene unfolds, each of the panels takes you back to a different point in our capital's past. An key events panel and timeline woven into the illustrations at the bottom makes history visually accessible at a glace. Iconic and historic monuments including St Pauls, St Brides, Westminster, the London Eye and Trafalgar Square are included in street scenes that show how people lived in our city through the ages.  

Key time periods included are as follows:

The Roman settlement; Medieval period (the black death); Tudor times (the invention of the printing press); The great fire of London; 1700s (the building of St Brides); Georgian London; Victorian times and the industrial age, Edwardian London (suffragettes and early cars); WW1 (soldiers marching down the streets); Between the wars; WW2 (The Blitz); The 1050s (black cabs and Routemasters appear); Elizabeth II's coronation; Modern day London in Trafalgar Sq.

Nayu's thoughts

 This is an incredibly fun journey through London's history. The book feels like a map in the way it folds out (it isn't quite as large as the maps I've used, but for the purpose of reading that's a good thing). There's a small piece of informative text at the bottom of each page, which when opened out follow each page sort of flows into the next, creating a London outline.

I enjoyed having to spot the children and their pigeon in each page...however this is what made the book lose a grade: sometimes the children/pigeon were super tiny so it was hard to spot them. On several pages I didn't spot them. There isn't an answer page either(some books like this will give small pictures of each page and put a circle around where the people/animal/object to be found is). The detail within each picture is extensive, and I feel would have benefited from being bigger. Those are my only issues with what is a brief but fun look at history. 

Find out more on Nick's website. 

Available in most book shops including NRC affiliate Foyles.

Suggest read

Another fun non-fiction read is Rebel Science by Dan Green, which explores science throughout the ages (Children's, Non-fiction, 9/10E)