20 Ancient Greece books to inspire a love of history

There is something magical about finding the book that keeps your child’s attention.  For Superman the very first book that kept his attention was an A to Z mystery book.  With each new homeschool history unit I try to find at least a small bit of that same magic.  I found a small bit of that magic with this ancient Greece books.*

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High interest ancient Greece books

High interest books are those books your kids will sit down and randomly start flipping through.  They usually have lots of pictures and diagrams, they often have random sidebars of text.

Top 10 worst things about Ancient Greece you wouldn’t want to know– Tween boys go nuts for these books

Mythical Beasts of Ancient Rome– The illustrations for this book are quite unique, and draw your kids in.

Ancient Greece: a guide to the golden age of Greece– ever since I was a kid I loved books like this.

Ancient Greece: 40 hands-on activities to experience this wondrous age!– I love this particular series, right now I have 3 books from it checked out on the American Revolution and Colonial America.  If you ever find one of these for sale snatch it up.  You’ll be thankful you did.

The ancient Greeks– This might belong in the more scholarly books, but I loved the pictures in this book, so I put it here.

You wouldn’t want to be a slave in Ancient Greece– Apparently you also wouldn’t want to be an athlete then (probably because they competed naked)

Gods and goddesses in the daily life of the ancient Greeks– I like this one because it relates the myths we’ve learned with how they actually lived, which is a bit unique

Ancient Greek Adventure– I find this one interesting because it has a bit of the feel of the choose your own adventure books

More Scholarly Ancient Greece books

These are the books that are great if your child is writing a report, but they are not likely to just sit down and read the book.  There were a few others my library had, but I discarded naming them because they looked to be out of print, and ridiculously expensive on Amazon.

Land and resources of ancient Greece– I am a sucker for primary resources

Olympia: warrior athletes of Ancient Greece– it seemed appropriate to include this with the Olympics coming up any day now

The Trojan War and Odysseus– I like Dover publications for their simplicity

Archimedes: mathematical genius of the ancient world– there’s a whole series of these books, and if you can get ahold of them I quite recommend getting them, because they are interesting.

Ancient Greece– I almost put this into the high interest, but decided it belongs a bit more in the scholarly side of the books I’m sharing

The Palace of Minos at Knossos– This quite solidly belongs in the scholarly books, but I find the archeology side fascinating

Story books of Ancient Greece

A few of these look to be adaptations of myths/epic poetry, but some are story versions of historical events.

The Trojan War– I like this particular collection of stories for older kids because it has a nice collection of stories.

Count Your Way Through Greece– While this book is more focused on modern Greece, the illustrations reflect a classical style, and I quite like them

The Fate of Achilles– The art style of this book reminds me of collages in some ways.

The Wooden Horse of Troy– It fascinates me how much this one event is written about in comparison to others.

Diogenes– There is something quite amusing of a picture book reframing an ancient Greek playwright as a dog and pulling it off.

Wise guy: the life and philosophy of Socrates– by the same author as Diogenes, it shares the same wit and while a different artist, a similar feel to the artwork.

 

Do you have any ancient Greece books you would suggest I add?

I’m primarily saving mythology for a different post at some day in the future, but I would love suggestions if you have any to add.

Want some more book suggestions?  I’ve got over 200 pinned on my Books Worth Reading board.

 

*So, I know I said I was going to get this post up on Monday, but I forgot I had agreed to a linky with a bunch of other bloggers, and then I was going to get it up early this morning, but…. I forgot I had guests coming over Tuesday night, so here you go.  Better late than never right?