The Story of the World, Activity Book 1: Ancient Times - From the Earliest Nomad to the Last Roman Emperor
ISBN:9781933339054 read summary

I saw this in a book store and wanted to see what it said about Jesus. Lots of false assertions. 1. It says that Jesus was popular. 2. It says that the Romans were afraid of Jesus. This is utter non-sense. Jesus was a barely a blip on their radar screen. He only became important to the Romans after the church grew and threated the idol trade and Christians refused to worship the Emperor. 3. It says the Romans killed Jesus on a charge of treason. This is also non-sense. Pilate wanted to let Jesus go but the Jews pushed the issue and chose for Pilate to release Barabbas instead of Jesus. They even accepted moral responisbility for it.
Matthew 27:21-26
21The governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you? They said, Barabbas.
22Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified.
23And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified.
24When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.
25Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.
26Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.

Jesus actual arrest warrant is preserved in the historical record as well and it clearly shows the Jews arrested him to appear before the Sanhedrin on the charge of blasphemy.

This maybe politically correct because the Romans are not around to complain so I will complain for them. This is either outright anti-Roman or anti-Italian bigotry!

I bought this book with the "text" book and test booklet. I love the activities in this book! The oral questions are very good in reinforcing what has been read. I usually ask the review questions while my daughter is coloring the included pictures or maps. I highly recommend this activity book as it is an enjoyable way to study a very interesting curriculum.

For those of you who use the book, there seems to be a minor error on Page 33. The question asked is: "The Chinese first settled in many small villages. Do you remember the name of the emperor who united them into one empire?" The answer provided in italics is "Huang Di", which translated, is not a name but a title, and in this case, "sovereign emperor".

Actually, Emperor Qin Shi Huang, born as Ying Zheng in 259 BC, was the son of the king of the Qin State. Ying Zheng unified and subjugated all the states like Han, Zhao, Wei, Chu, Yan and Qi by the power of the Qin State, thereafter building the first feudal and centralised empire in Chinese history in 221 BC. Today, he is famous for the Great Wall and the Terracotta warriors and horses (even in Epcot, Orlando Disneyworld). When Ying Zheng unified China, he considered his achievement surpassing the legendary "San Huang (three emperors)" and "Wu Di (five sovereigns)", so he created a new title for himself: "Huangdi" together with "Shi (the first)", giving rise to the name "Qin Shi Huang" or "Qin Shi Huangdi", which means he was the first emperor of China. Later generations called him "Qin Shi Huang".

Very often, in Mandarin Chinese, the name comes before the title, unlike in the West, where one would call the monarch of England, for instance, "Queen Elizabeth" (not "Elizabeth Queen") which is probably what caused the confusion. To some, this might seem like splitting hairs, but if you speak Mandarin, it is like saying that the name of the emperor who united China is "Mr." I think very highly of this book for its layout, coverage and engaging activities and hope my entry has been helpful.

This activity book is equally matched to the narrative book. The hands-on activities are exciting, easy, fun, appropriate to the portion of history they represent. I'm so glad the author/editor did this work for me/us.

This book is quite large but good. It has neat crafts to do for each chapter of the correlating book. I especially like the recipes in it. Also some nice map work , comprehension questions & coloring pages. Not great for really young kids but 2nd ish grade is just fine, maybe younger depending on how much of the book you use. I love that this book gives you things to do that are hands on, which helps reenforce what you are reading and I'm not left wondering what to do for an activity. If you are using the story book that goes with this one and want more, this is a nice thing to buy.