From Booklist
Reviewed with Ellen Galford's The Trail West.Gr. 5-8. For years, scholars have examined old paintings seeking to learn more about historical times and places. These books from the Picture That series invite students to do the same, using pictures that represent late medieval life in Europe and nineteenth-century western expansion in the U.S. With a spacious format and excellent reproduction of art, the books introduce the paintings and talk about what they reveal before zooming in on distinctive details, which are enlarged and discussed in captions. In Knights, the first double-page spread of the section "On the Battlefield" discusses Paolo Uccello's painting The Battle of San Romano; the second spread focuses on small sections of the painting illustrating fifteenth-century armor, the crossbow, the mace, the battle horse, and hand-to-hand fighting. In The Trail West, the section called "A Sacred Festival" presents Kiowa artist Silver Horn's The Camp Circle--Measuring the Pole, followed by a spread explaining five details from the picture. Appendixes include a glossary, a time line, and lists of books and Internet sites. Recommended particularly for visual learners. Carolyn Phelan
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Book Description
Knights and Castles introduces readers to the exciting world of the medieval knight and his entourage. Including works by Paolo Uccello, Lucas Cranach, Pietr Brueghel the Younger, and Hieronymous Bosch, the book explores different media as well by examining a section of the Bayeux tapestry and featuring part of that wonderful illuminated manuscript, Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. Picture That is a unique history-through-art series in which 15 to 20 key works of art with child-friendly images illustrate and illuminate different aspects of everyday life at certain periods of history. The range of topics covered in each book includes family life and events; childhood and education; commercial and town life; agriculture and country living; homes, clothes, and fashion; food, festivals, and customs; travel and transportation; and war and punishment. Each work of art is displayed in its entirety with a general introduction to the subject matter, placing it in context and giving information about the period in which it was created. Carefully selected details of the work of art are enlarged to give the reader a close-up view, with captions that reveal fascinating and often unexpected facts.

About the Author
Alex Martin is a prolific writer of both fiction and nonfiction works. His adult novel The General Interruptor won the Betty Trask Prize in 1988, and he has written several children's novels including Zeus Perkins, Time Traveller (Hodder, 1998). He has selected and edited various fiction collections, including Modern Plays and Modern Novels (Prentice Hall/Phoenix 1995). His nonfiction books include Greece (Simple Guides, 1995) and Daily Life in the Holy Land at the Time of Jesus (Reader's Digest 1995).

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Knights and Castles introduces readers to the exciting world of the medieval knight and his entourage. Including works by Paolo Uccello, Lucas Cranach, Pietr Brueghel the Younger, and Hieronymous Bosch, the book explores different media as well by examining a section of the Bayeux tapestry and featuring part of that wonderful illuminated manuscript, Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry.

Picture That is a unique history-through-art series in which 15 to 20 key works of art with child-friendly images illustrate and illuminate different aspects of everyday life at certain periods of history. The range of topics covered in each book includes family life and events; childhood and education; commercial and town life; agriculture and country living; homes, clothes, and fashion; food, festivals, and customs; travel and transportation; and war and punishment. Each work of art is displayed in its entirety with a general introduction to the subject matter, placing it in context and giving information about the period in which it was created. Carefully selected details of the work of art are enlarged to give the reader a close-up view, with captions that reveal fascinating and often unexpected facts.

Author Biography: Alex Martin is a prolific writer of both fiction and nonfiction works. His adult novel The General Interruptor won the Betty Trask Prize in 1988, and he has written several children's novels including Zeus Perkins, Time Traveller (Hodder, 1998). He has selected and edited various fiction collections, including Modern Plays and Modern Novels (Prentice Hall/Phoenix 1995). His nonfiction books include Greece (Simple Guides, 1995) and Daily Life in the Holy Land at the Time of Jesus (Reader's Digest 1995).

FROM THE CRITICS

Children's Literature - Janet Crane Barley

The best way to get an accurate glimpse of details of life in the far past is seeing it through the eyes of someone who was there. That is the premise of this fascinating book in the "Picture That" series. Large views of Medieval paintings done by artists such as Paolo Uccello, Lucas Cranach the Elder, and the Breugels, elder and younger, are shown. Specific details like clothing, battle garb, farm tools, children's games, and activities of daily life and special events are highlighted in another version of the painting then details are enlarged and discussed in the text. The reader will get contemporary views of life at court, inside a farmhouse, on the battlefield, during a joust, along with glimpses of hunting deer, children at play, and a goldsmith at work. The book covers much more about Medieval life than its title promises. Most paintings are contemporary with the events they portray except for Jean Fouquet's "Death of Clothar I and the Division of his Kingdom" that was painted for an illuminated manuscript about an event that happened 900 years earlier. The book includes a glossary, timeline, index, books for further reading, web sites about history of Medieval Europe, castles and art of the period. 2005, Two-Can Publishing/Toucan Books Ltd, Ages 8 to 12.

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