#Review and #Giveaway: If You Were Me and Lived In the Mayan Empire #carolepromanbooks

Summary:
Travel through time to visit the most interesting civilizations throughout history in the first four books of her new series.Learn what kind of food you might eat in Ancient Greece, the clothes you wore in 15th century Renaissance Italy, what your name could be in Viking Europe, and what children who lived during the Han Dynasty did for fun.If You Were Me and Lived in...does for history what her other award-winning series did for culture.So get on-board this time-travel machine and discover the world through the eyes of a young person just like you.

My review:
Having read the author's original series for younger children, this series, updated for older elementary children, is delightful.

I have always been fascinated with Mayan culture. Their buildings and environments are amazing as well as perplexing. Carole Roman breaks it down for children in this book. Many things are to be learned along the way including the Mayan's expertise in mathematics. Did you know they introduced the concept of zero or nothing? Neither did I!

As with the original series, she describes what boys and girls may be named but the book goes further to explain the rolls that each played in society and how one was born in to a particular role. She plops you, the reader, right in the middle of their civilization to learn and grow with them.

Larger words are spelled out and pronounced in the text as well in a back-book glossary. This has been a staple of the author's books and works well.

As a reader and reviewer of this book, I do want to note that the Mayan's did do things that we in the 21st century would find horrifying. These things are noted throughout the book and the author does not gloss over them.  I thought that was important in illustrating a full picture of what life was like then and the author giving real information. Kudos!

Finally, I want to address the illustrations in the book. They were truly top notch. The illustrator did match some real-life pictures with ancient culture. By doing so, it seemed all too real, which of course, was the intention. The illustrator used bold colors and I believe correct coloring of the people. She did not try to mask clothing styles which I believe also leads to the truthfulness of the Mayan people that Carole P. Roman was betraying.

Well done book and deserves the 5 stars I am giving it. Don't take my word for it though, this book has won numerous awards which can be seen on the cover.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book for free to review. The opinions expressed here are 100% my own and may differ from yours. ~Michelle

Where to find the author:

Amazon
Goodreads

Giveaway:
I am giving away a print copy of this book to one of my readers. I am responsible for the giveaway. The giveaway begins on 6/14/19 and ends midnight 6/28/19. It is open to U.S. residents only.
The winner will be notified by email and must respond within 48 hours or an alternate winner will be drawn at random by rafflecopter.  If you take an entry you must keep it throughout the duration of the giveaway. All entries will be verified.



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