A Story of Ancient World -vs- A Story of the World

[9hillbillies:)]

Hello, i see there are 2 different books, A Story of the Ancient world, which is used in C to C w/HOD and then there's A Story of the World by Susan Bauer?.....does anyone know the difference(s) between these 2 books? I see that there is a student activity book that goes w/the latter of these 2, is there one that goes w/the first one?

Thanks!
angie

[DHT1999]

I'll try to help!

The Story of the World, written by Susan Wise Bauer, was intended to be used as a read-aloud to very young children. Susan recommends it for a first grader though some do use it for older children. Susan is married to a pastor and is a Christian but I, personally, would consider the text to be a secular version of Ancient History. She has explained this by stating that she had some pressure from her publisher to write a text that was usable by a wide variety of potential customers - a broader base. She does tell about some Biblical personalities... she mentions Abraham, Joseph, the Jews in Egypt, the Exodus, Moses, and Nebuchanezzer. She writes about the myths of Ancient Egypt and of Early Crete (like the minotaur). Touches on the Gods of Greece. She does cover the birth of Christ. Nothing about creation. I started this book with my oldest son when he was a first grader and we quickly shelved it. He had nightmares about some of the content and we switched curriculum that year. However, I picked it back up with him when he was a third grader and it was ok then. Before then, he had had alot of Bible and Biblical history and he had matured alot, so it was fine then. We actually enjoyed it but I did read it to him rather than just turning it over to him to read. Yes, there is an activity book. It includes maps, narration questions, titles of additional books that complement each chapter, coloring pages, and projects.

The Story of the Ancient World is written for an older child (late elementary through middle school - a higher reading/listening level than SOTW) and intended to be a reader for the child but you could use it as a read-aloud. It is a republication of a couple (maybe three?) different titles that were written by H. A Guerber in the late 1800's. Christine Miller revised Guerber's titles and combined them into one book, The Story of the Ancient World. One of the books that Guerber had written, which was used for Miller's book, was entled The Story of God's Chosen People. So, that is a big asset to those of us who want to incorporate more Biblical history into our Ancient History curricula because it tells history from the point of view of the Jews. So, you will find MUCH more Biblical history in this book (as opposed to The Story of the World). Plus, she used a variety of other sources, one of which was Josephus, who thoroughly covers ancient history from the perspective of the Jews. So, all in all, you are getting more Biblical history. You don't get activities with this book, but it does include a timeline and lists of additional titles that one could choose to read alongside the book. Of course, with HOD, that probably wouldn't be necessary, since HOD includes activities and plenty of literature.

Hope that helps some!

[9hillbillies:)]

Donna, thank you! I have not seen neither of the books, only have seen them for sale~so i know (knew) nothing about either. Your descriptions and insight are excellent and i appreciate you taking the time to type all that out~this was very helpful;)
Thank you!!!:)
angie

[DHT1999]

I failed to clarify that there are four total volumes of The Story of the World. Only the first volume covers Ancient History.

[DHT1999]

You are very welcome.

You can find sample pages of The Story of the World on Amazon. You can find samples of the Miller/Guerber books at NothingNewPress.com.