The Culture of Sparta

Review

by William Brown
published on 05 February 2019

As part of a series titled Ancient Cultures and Civilizations, The Culture of Sparta by Vic Kovacs aims to present a simple, accessible overview of ancient Sparta. At 31 pages, it is oriented towards young children. With its excellent page formatting, simple language, and short historical overview, students would benefit from access to this volume.

As part of a series titled Ancient Cultures and Civilizations, The Culture of Sparta by Vic Kovacs aims to present a simple, accessible overview of ancient Sparta. The volume is oriented towards a younger, K-12 audience. At only 31 pages, it describes fives aspects of Spartan history: a broad overview of Spartan history, Sparta's role in the Peloponnesian War, why and how Sparta was a war machine, daily life in Sparta, and the downfall of Sparta. An index and glossary are included at the end of the book.

Each chapter is straightforward and clear, written in concise, short sentences. As such, it would be fitting for younger students to read the book because it is easy to understand. There is never a need to decipher sentences. Moreover, each page includes at least one picture. So, as students read, they are easily able to connect words with images. In my experiences as an educator, well-done correlations between image and text can be fruitful in helping students to retain and be engaged with information.

Finally, the book would be excellent for elementary school students and middle school students doing any sort of research project. What is more, with a good teacher, the book can easily be leveraged and critically engaged in order to help students develop their own critical thinking skills about history and how we can learn from it.

In conclusion, I highly recommend The Culture of Sparta by Vic Kovacs. It would be especially beneficial for younger readers were it at school libraries, public libraries, home libraries, or teacher's libraries. Perhaps, though, even adults may enjoy the relative simplicity and ease of reading a book like this one.

Cite This Work