I Wonder Why the Pyramids Were Built: and Other Questions about Egypt

by Miranda Smith

Browsers and young students alike will enjoy these lively question and answer books with their unique mix of realistic illustration and engaging cartoons. The enticing questions will amaze, amuse and inspire, while the highly visual format encourages kids to keep reading.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Childrens, Egypt, Reference, Picture Books, Education

64 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

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Miranda Smith - Suspense


Miranda Smith is a long-standing editor of information books for both children and adults. She has a particular interest in the field of natural history and has written books and articles for children on the subject, including the encyclopedic Living Earth (for Dorling Kindersley).

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Useful, bitesize chunks of information to help my son with his school work project on Ancient Egypt. Learned a few interesting things myself too.

[millie buchan · Rating 5 out of 5]

best in the world i loved these books

[Sandra Muszyńska · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75

[Anton · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hated this book. It's only 30 pages and it made me throw it to the floor. The book is called I Wonder Why Pyramids Were Built, but the book never gave information on how the pyramids were actually built. Plus, the pyramids were only focused on for two pages of the book!

The rest of this focused on the rich people and how "cool" they were. Putting down poor people by saying they were nobodys! This may have been true IN ANCIENT EGYPT, but it was phrased so badly. I really disliked that the author gave their own opinions on everything, for example: saying that if you want to look good, put on make up! And "The Egyptians might have spent a lot of time building tombs, but they weren't a miserable lot!" First of all, you do not use the word "might" in a fact book. That's like saying: MAYBE the pyramids were tombs, but they were big! Second of all, giving your opinion as an author, in a non fictional book and calling what the ancient egyptians did for their kings miserable...it's just plain rude! Dead or not.

In conclusion, this is not a good factual book on ancient Egypt for kids, because the author leaves their opinions ("Who looks really cool?") and assumes things about the egyptians lives ("...they weren't a miserable lot!" and it does not explain what some things are, ("Egypt is a very hot country,..." How hot?!) and what is natron? Explain! Also, this book is not long enough to give young children (especially young children) a good idea about how it was to live in ancient Egypt! 30 fricking pages of how amazing the rich people were back then and all that they could do. Where's the shredder?

[Brianna Jensen]

This non-fiction informational text is written at a perfect level for younger readers who are just starting to explore non-fiction. The book is question-based, so every page answers a different question (such as "Why do we call the Egyptians Ancient?" "How would you know if you met a pharaoh?" and etc.)
The informative book is perfect for beginning researchers complete with pictures and icons that make it fun to read.

Reading level: ages 5-8

Possible mentor writing trait: Presentation. This book has a pleasing appearance that would make anyone (child or adult) want to dive in and read! Each page has one or more illustrations per topic that are colorful and draw you in to the topics.

Themes to integrate with the classroom: This book would go well with beginning research projects about Ancient Egyptians. Students could make their own pictures of King Tut, mummies, draw pyramids, or anything else that would tie into life in Ancient Egypt.

[Israel Selway]

Informational
This book has a great set up where it asks a question, answers it simply and concisely, and then usually has a smaller text of extra information. The harmony and contrast between the more cartoon illustrations and the realistic illustrations were really fascinating and fun to look at.

[Whitney · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a series of "I Wonder Why..." books that answers funny little questions about a topic. There isn't much real information in here, just little factoids. The illustrations are horrible.

[Teri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely more engaging and creative than this book looks. Simple and surprising.

[Joudi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative. I enjoyed reading it.

[Tracy Reed · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a schoolish-information book, so I can't rank it as high as the good living books we typically use. (It was free.)