Pompeii -- Buried Alive! (Step into Reading)

Excellent short book for kids on Pompeii and the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. Very good illustrations by Michael Eagle, who also illustrated The Trojan Horse, a childhood favorite from the same Step into Reading series.The first chapter offers a kid-friendly look at daily life in a Roman city, with attention given to home life, religion—including the often-overlooked household shrine—slaves, and typical activity in a town market. Throughout, the author and illustrator—by keeping Vesuvius, “a sleeping giant,” lurking in the background of the pictures and by repeating the refrain “No one knew that something terrible was going to happen”—build a powerful sense of foreboding.The chapter dealing with the eruption itself is vivid but not too graphic or—hopefully—disturbing. We see characters in varying states of panic with some escaping by sea (Pliny the Elder, unmentioned in the book, being partly responsible for evacuation operations) and many others left to their fates in the city. The stages of the eruption are well-described and illustrated, with the town suffering rains of pumice, ash, and finally the pyroclastic flow that wiped out human life down to the sea (including Pliny). Again—well done in a kid-friendly way, avoiding jargon and describing the power of the mountain in understandable terms.The final chapter, in the spirit of The Trojan Horse’s chapter on Heinrich Schliemann, describes Pompeii after its destruction, gradually covered over by earth and only rediscovered with the birth of modern archaeology (inspired by the eyewitness account of Pliny the Younger, who does figure in the story) and a few accidental discoveries. The story bookends with scientists monitoring “the sleeping giant” Vesuvius.A good, well-illustrated account that could introduce kids to Roman life, archaeology, geology and seismology all at the same time.Highly recommended.

This is a great little book about the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD. And what happened to the people and houses of Pompeii.The writing is excellent and to the point. My three year old granddaughter was raptly attentive when I read this to her.The illustrations are equally accurate and informative. (It's a pleasure to see realistic children's illustrations rather than the too common grotesque caricatures so prevalent today.)

Well written. My 5 year old is into volcanoes and he found this book engaging, with just the right amount of text and detailed illustrations. The only thing that's really scary for someone that young is how archaeologists poured plaster into these strange holes at Pompeii and discovered that the holes were negative space created by corpses that had rotted away slowly after sediments/lava had accumulated. There's only 1 page of that. Otherwise, a good read. Would recommend for a young avid reader who can puzzle through it by him/herself.

I love these books. I'm constantly looking for interesting nonfiction texts for my classroom. These are perfect for my third graders and they can not get enough of them. Kids are constantly coming up to me and telling me new facts that they have learned from the books in this series. Great for science, reading, social studies, history, vocabulary, etc. Highly recommended!

I went to Italy this summer and returned to the inquiring minds of my 4 and 6 year old grandsons. They wanted to know where I went and why I went there. This book was perfect to explain why I went back to Pompeii and why it was important. Perfect reading for my bright six-year old to read aloud to his four year old brother. Love it!

My son loved this book because he liked the drama and the excitement of the story. He was fascinated about the destruction of Pompeii.

My kids and I have very much enjoyed reading the whole Step Into Reading Series. The Pompeii book especially draws the reader in because of the dramatic theme... "Did they know the giant was about to awake? No...they did not."Very enjoyable. We're reading it with our kindergarten-aged kid. For us anyway, the Level 4 readers are about the maximum that our kindergartner has attention span for. Level 5s are a bit too many words...one day!

Wonderful for a volcano-loving new 1st grader. A good level for autumn in 1st grade for a medium speed reader.Besides teaching the kids history and a bit on volcanoes, the book is a good conversation starter on the Roman empire, volcanoes, living in a dangerous area (like San Francisco) and slavery. The school likes to make my kid read Clifford the red dog and similar happy but slightly nonsense stories. I like that this book gives the kids a chance to reflect on how their life is compared to the people of Pompeii. Why were people willing to take the risk of living on a volcano? YES - we read it a lot