About the History of the Calendar

ISBN 056108092x - While I'm giving the book 5 stars, I'll qualify that by mentioning that it is slightly dated ("We live in the twentieth century."), but it's still historically accurate and useful. Non-fiction books for children are often excellent homeschooling tools and this, I would think, would be one of those.

In six very short chapters, the history of the calendar is explained. First are Nature's Calendars - budding trees, the arrival of certain insects; next, Moon Calendars, The Calendar of Julius Caesar, Pope Gregory Changes the Calendar, How We Got the Week, A.D. and B.C. and A Twentieth-Century Calendar. The book explains how each different type of calendar came to be and why it was replaced. The names of the months, the names of the days of the week, and even where seven-day weeks came from, are also explained.

For the usefulness, and the educational factor, I really like this book. The text, by author A. E. Evenson, is fairly simple without being that kind of basic that seems like condescending. Because of the topic, I'd think the primary audience would be children from 8 to 10 or so. Illustrator William Neebe's work is sometimes just a cartoon-ish addition that brings color to the book but some of the images are useful and even interesting (the drawing of the Roman calendar that uses pegs, for instance). The quality of the drawings isn't superb but they suit this 1972 title quite well.

- AnnaLovesBooks