Life Long Ago (Spyglass Books Series) Book

Takes a look at life one hundred years ago, compared to life today.

Children's Literature

This small volume is one of the "Spyglass Books," a social studies series for younger readers. Although "long ago" is not precisely defined, the author seems to suggest a time about a hundred years ago. Some of the black and white photos and color reproductions of posters are from the turn of the twentieth century, but others were obviously produced later; a picture of schoolchildren listening to a gramophone features girls with bobbed hair and showing a lot of leg. Women ironing seem to be from the twenties or thirties. Primary-age children usually have little sense of the past, but they deserve consistency and accuracy in its presentation. Statements that women always wore gloves and hats and that men and boys wore hats and woolen suits even in summer are contradicted by pictures of hatless and gloveless women and coatless boys in summer shirts. Printed in very large type, the text is simple and declarative. While it is difficult to show a whole period in fifteen pictures, it's always fun to look at old photographs. Still, to offer a more complete picture of "long ago," teachers would do well to supplement with some of the many attractive picture books showing life in earlier times like, for example, Barbara Cooney's evocative Hattie and the Wild Waves. 2003, Compass Point, Talcroft