I am an eleven year old homeschool girl. The Hero Schliemann by Laura Amy Schlitz taught me many facts about Heinrich Schliemann, an archaeologist who dug to find the ancient city of Troy. It taught me through fabulously detailed writing, amusing pictures, and humor.
For one thing, this book brought me into the moment with very vivid imagery. Unlike a summary, including only the most important events, it contained information on Schliemann's childhood, where he first decided that he would find the city of Troy, and his marriages, which troubled him because women only wanted to marry him because he was rich. The story really taught me what it was like to be Schliemann.
Also, the book contained pictures, which were amusing but still gave me a better understanding of events in the story. For example, there is a picture of Schliemann travelling in a boat on an exaggeratedly stormy sea. Though not very realistic, it was lifelike and set a particular mood of panic. There was another picture of Schliemann digging and dirt flying up in the air, while people looked at him, puzzled. This showed that he was very rash when digging. I could imagine these events happening in real life because of the pictures.
Schlitz's humor clearly communicated that Heinrich Schliemann was a strangely funny person. He lied many times in his life, so we cannot be sure if his discoveries were genuine. One artifact, the mask of Agamemnon, is denied to be authentic because no other masks like it were ever found. Also, Schliemann actually dug beneath the part of Troy that he wanted to find, and found even older ruins and ancient objects of stone. He did more damage to Troy digging it than the amount of damage inflicted when Troy was burned down.
For these reasons, I highly recommend this book to homeschoolers my age.
For one thing, this book brought me into the moment with very vivid imagery. Unlike a summary, including only the most important events, it contained information on Schliemann's childhood, where he first decided that he would find the city of Troy, and his marriages, which troubled him because women only wanted to marry him because he was rich. The story really taught me what it was like to be Schliemann.
Also, the book contained pictures, which were amusing but still gave me a better understanding of events in the story. For example, there is a picture of Schliemann travelling in a boat on an exaggeratedly stormy sea. Though not very realistic, it was lifelike and set a particular mood of panic. There was another picture of Schliemann digging and dirt flying up in the air, while people looked at him, puzzled. This showed that he was very rash when digging. I could imagine these events happening in real life because of the pictures.
Schlitz's humor clearly communicated that Heinrich Schliemann was a strangely funny person. He lied many times in his life, so we cannot be sure if his discoveries were genuine. One artifact, the mask of Agamemnon, is denied to be authentic because no other masks like it were ever found. Also, Schliemann actually dug beneath the part of Troy that he wanted to find, and found even older ruins and ancient objects of stone. He did more damage to Troy digging it than the amount of damage inflicted when Troy was burned down.
For these reasons, I highly recommend this book to homeschoolers my age.
