My biggest issue with Magical History Tour #1: The Great Pyramid (besides a hint of a Beatles song leaking from the back of my brain) is that my version was small (I had a reader copy). If this is the size that it will be, this will make it hard for some readers. The text is all on the page, with medium to full detailed images. It can feel crowded. Fabrice Erre has done a great job of presenting the information and Sylvian Savoia’s illustrations complement that while adding to it, but the business of it all made me stop and look/read again more than once.
It has a “Magic Tree House non-fiction” feeling, without the actual time traveling aspect. This is facts one after another, without being put into any fictionalized element even though you have two narrators. They are just telling you the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How of things. You learn who the pharaoh was, the evolution of towers, the fact this is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the World left, and pieces of information I did not think were possible to learn. Information has been updated from “our times” (it is believed that laborer’s and not slaves did the work).
The flow can be a little bumpy at times, but always interesting. Not for the very young to sit and listen to but could work as a one-on-one reading with ages 7 to 10 (obviously the older end can read themselves). I would even allow this up to ages 11-12 for a jumping off point, but not as a complete look at the subject of pyramids, Egypt and other pieces of interest.
