A City Through Time

by D.K. Publishing, Phillip Steele

Follow the story of a city from an ancient colony to a vast modern metropolis through stunning full-colour illustrations.

A City Through Time will transport you back to another age, as the award-winning Steve Noon brings the past to life in style. Panoramic scenes presented in a unique cutaway style are packed with colourful pictures showing everyday life in the city across the centuries. Clear descriptions surround each beautiful and jam-packed illustration to make sure the details aren't lost as you meet the characters who live and work there. Plus, each scene has a page devoted to key features, so you can get up close to a Roman bath-house, a medieval castle, or a modern skyscraper.

A photographic section profiles great cities throughout history and a glossary tells you what you need to know about architecture, technology, work, and costumes throughout the ages.

Steve Noon's A City Through Time is perfect for parents and children to look at together or for school projects. The more you look, the more you'll see.

Genres: History, Picture Books, Nonfiction, Childrens, Architecture, Reference, World History

48 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1993

About the author

Dorling Kindersley (DK) is a British multinational publishing company specializing in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 62 languages. It is part of Penguin Random House, a consumer publishing company jointly owned by Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA and Pearson PLC. Bertelsmann owns 53% of the company and Pearson owns 47%.

Established in 1974, DK publishes a range of titles in genres including travel (including Eyewitness Travel Guides), arts and crafts, business, history, cooking, gaming, gardening, health and fitness, natural history, parenting, science and reference. They also publish books for children, toddlers and babies, covering such topics as history, the human body, animals and activities, as well as licensed properties such as LEGO, Disney and DeLiSo, licensor of the toy Sophie la Girafe. DK has offices in New York, London, Munich, New Delhi, Toronto and Melbourne.

Source: Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

A similar book to 'A Street through Time' however instead this book looks at a number of different cities from important periods of time across the world. There are a number of facts for children to read if they want a little bit of information about lots of time periods rather than in-depth about one specific time and place.

[Ilana Waters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous, fascinating book. Incredible level of detail. If you look closely (and you will), you'll see a bit of humor on every page as well. A street cart vendor chasing down a thief, for example. Can't wait to read the rest of the series!

[Elfo-oscuro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Se hace muy cortito. Es una pena

[mai · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great picture it's so fascinating

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Summary: takes you through a city as it changes. These changes include people, buildings, etc.

Reflection: Awesome BOOK!!! So much informmation with so many helpful tools that it will work for all grade levels.

Themes/Connections: History, sociology, time changing, people, comparing and contrasting

[Sarah Daniluk · Rating 4 out of 5]

The books by Steve Noon are a MUST when teaching kids (or even adults) about how cities change over the years and our impact on our environment. I really enjoyed reading these.

[Jurij Fedorov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pro:

Steve Noon yet again delivers a book that will stand the test of time and is easy to reread. I wish there were 100 books like this one.

It has detailed images and a history progression timeline. Lots of detailed illustrations.

Con:

Gonna repeat my statement from A Street Through Time review: I just wasn't super engaged with it. It's right in my ballpark for sure but I guess such a book may be more powerful for kids than adults and it's hard to judge it as a reader who have read history books and watched hundreds of history documentaries. It felt a bit like I already knew this stuff personally. I think my main issue is that the illustrations are just a tad less detailed than a perfect version of this book would have.

This one has descriptive text that never feels like it tries any history narration. So while it's not good text it doesn't fail either. I still would wish it went just a bit more into culture. Though it's not a great error like in A Street Through time. Here the boring text is fine as there is no personal story to tell. But still, describing men, women and children would have given it another layer of depth.

While the drawings are very detailed the minor details are smudged out. So you can't make out smaller stuff. It makes for a unique style that makes it all seem like one big idea. But I'm a much bigger fan of sharp lines in such a case as they allow one to study the past in details. Where's Waldo has illustrations you can actually study in details for tens of minutes. This book is just pretty from a distance. I'm not really sure why sharp lines weren't used but they could have created a masterpiece if used properly.

I recommend the book for sure. No doubt. I'll probably re-rate the books in the series to 5 stars if I keep looking at them.

[MK · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fully illustrated book about people's lives and cities from ancient Greece and Rome, from the Middle Ages to the present day. It was very compact but interesting.

In the Stone Age, food, clothing, and a place to live were essential, and people struggled to survive.

During the ancient Greek and Roman periods, the number of religious facilities, arts and entertainment increased, and people felt more comfortable in their lives.

In the Middle Ages, there was a wonderful balance between nature and culture.

Today, the world has become more convenient, but the sad reality is that the gap between rich and poor still exists. All humans must be guaranteed the minimum necessities of food, clothing, and a place to live.

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This fabulous book describes the history of a city from the Stone Age all the way through to today. I like how as you go through the book it’s in time order and has beautiful illustrations. Some pictures show what the inside of a building is like, such as a castle and a town hall. This book tells you a lot about the people who lived in that time and then you can pick them out in the big picture. It tells you a lot of facts about what life was like in the past and how it is today. At the back of the book it tells you when things were invented or found.

[Eve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got the newer version of this book. The dimension is different than the old one. It was narrow in the width, but longer in the length, so it's easier to flip the page. The downside, the illustrations were smaller. Regardless, this was a lovely book, not only for children but also for an adult reader who curious with simplified looks of a city throughout the time. I especially like the fact that the author included port and station in this book.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

A City Through Time is very similar to A Street Through Time but feels... I guess a little less personal? There's less focus on people's individual experiences and more on how the city runs overall. I don't know--to be honest this was the third book in this series that I read in a row and I was kind of getting fatigued of them, so I skimmed a bit.

[Libby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like "A Street Through Time", this book illustrates the changes within a singular space over time, this time based in a city in the Mediterranean. It is intricate and a fantastic concept and resource.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very good book about the evolution of cities. It starts at the beginning and shows where later cities were built on the previous ones. The illustrations are very good. Recommend ages 8 to 12.

[Crystal M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, what an incredible look into urban life across the centuries! I loved all the little details that drew me in to looking at one page. This is a great visualizer for everyday life in the past, bravo.

[Benjamin Bookman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clever, but not nearly as good as A Street Through Time.

[Indah Threez Lestari · Rating 3 out of 5]

491 - 2020

[Juli Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun history-spotting for kiddos, but could have used a little more depth and nuance.

[wildct2003 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of information

[Céline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un jolie livre illustré de la Grèce antique à l'ère moderne.

[Annemieke Windt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice book for children: shows the big changes in a city from its origin to the modern day.

[Erik B.K.K. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super cool European city. Steve Noon is an awesome illustrator.

[R. C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brief, simplified, but absorbing enough look at the same (European, presumably, from the presence of Romans at one point) spot at various times in history. Each two page spread has just enough meat to absorb a kindergartener and keep a dialogue going for the length of the average five-year-old attention span. This book (and it's companions, A Street Through Time and A Farm Through Time) would definitely be a big help to a K5er or first grader in developing a mental timeline with good sturdy pegs on which to hang the rest of his or her historical knowledge.

Oh, and my whole family was fascinated, all four kids (at ages 3, 6, 8 and 11) and my partner (old).

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

The fascinating evolution of a modern day city. Two page spreads lay out the details of each snapshot of progress. People are introduced on each page and a brief description of their place in society is included next to their illustration. Architecture, technology, work and play, and costume are all looked at over time. Paragraphs giving basic information about historical cities follows.

This is one of those books you can just pore over. The detailed artwork brings to mind David Macauley's work. There's a lot of history presented here, but the highly visual formatting makes it more accessible to a wider range of kids.

[Annie Pasma · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very good book about the evolution of cities. It starts at the beginning and shows where later cities were built on the previous ones. The illustrations are very good. Recommend ages 8 to 12.

[Terri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book showing how villages and town have evolved through time and the people that would have lived in them. Add to that a bit of "where's Waldo" on each double page should keep a child interested, and make them look closer at the town during a particular development period.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't remember when I read the original, but I loved it then and now. A very fun look at how cities change over time. My favorite part is being able to see inside buildings to see what the occupants are up to.

[Ietrio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute, but a bit too short. It might have been longer.