Historium activity book by Richard Wilkinson and Joy Nelson

Five Mile Press, 2015. ISBN 9781760403706
(Age: 8+) History, Museums, Civilisations. This book is an activity book designed to be a companion to the Historium book published in 2015. The original large and imposing (and heavy) book directed the reader to use it like a museum, opening pages to the great civilisations of the world, using each section to gain an overview of what is held in various museums about that civilisation. The curators (cute!) present the civilisations of Africa beginning with a group of Stone Age tools from one million years ago. The book moves on to several civilisations within the last two thousand years leaving their mark with a glorious gold leaf rhinoceros and ivory mask, before settling into the Egyptian period, better known to the audience. Each page has wonderful illustrations drawn from original photographs taken in various museums around the world, and several paragraphs of information about the artifact, its date, its importance and where it was found and is now housed. This activity book is similarly confined in what it deals with.
It offers puzzles and games, fill in the box activities, more bits of information, colouring in pages and so on. It feels like something from history lessons of the past but may have a place as a teacher reference for photocopying.
Fran Knight