Adventures in Ancient China

Good Times Travel Agency #5

by Linda Bailey, Bill Slavin (Illustrator)

Join the Binkertons -- twins Josh and Emma and their little sister Libby -- as they return to the Good Times Travel Agency and end up knee-deep in an ancient Chinese rice paddy! Adventures in Ancient China is an engaging mix of adventure and historical information about life in China during first century AD. Kids will learn about Chinese society, inventions, medicine, the Silk Road, the Great Wall, nomadic warriors and much more. They'll love the book's contemporary comic-book look, while parents, teachers and librarians will appreciate the well-researched story line and solid factual information.

Genres: History, Asia, Picture Books, Ancient History, Nonfiction, Childrens

48 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2003

About the author

I was born and grew up in Winnipeg —a daydreamer with her nose in a book. In my twenties, I traveled around the world, mostly by ship. Later, I moved to Vancouver, where I earned a B.A. and M.Ed. at the University of British Columbia. Among my jobs were travel agent, college teacher, instructional designer and editor.

For years, I dabbled with writing. But I didn't begin to write in earnest until I had two young daughters. My first book was published in 1992, and I have since written more than thirty others, including novels, picture books and non-fiction.

I live in Vancouver, a short walk from the sea. I write full-time and still love to travel, read and daydream.
- Source

Series:
* Stanley
* Stevie Diamond Mystery
* Good Times Travel Agency

Awards:
Arthur Ellis Award
◊ Best Juvenile (1997): How Can a Frozen Detective Stay Hot on the Trail?
◊ Best Juvenile (2000): How Can a Brilliant Detective Shine in the Dark?

Reviews

[Lee]

Quit, don't quit. Noodles, don't noodles.

[Jasmine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still fun. And good grief, China had so many inventions while Europeans were still figuring out iron.

[Klinton Saha · Rating 4 out of 5]

-- we are looking for two young barbarians. They know too much.
--[Josh] I don't know anything.Ask my teacher.


The Binkertons siblings are known about the secret of silk.They can't leave China with secret.Their life is in great trouble.


This book is much better.The illustrations are so fascinating.

[Cassandra Gelvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ancient China is a terrible place.

This is a weird, long, graphic-novel type book. It's still aimed at kids, but it's really aimed at older kids. It's very strange. It seems to be part of a series, and not the first part. These two twin kids and their little sister are out walking and the little sister runs into a weird travel agency place and they chase her. The proprietor opens a magic book that causes all three of the kids to travel to ancient China, where the twins promptly get in an argument and their sister wanders off. The twins have a miserable time as their jerk little sister smugly gets treated nicely by Chinese officials. The twins accidentally discover the secret of silk and end up on the run, then eventually break into the palace to get their sister and then manage to escape and finish reading the magic book in order to get back to the real world. And that's it.

There's adventure, but it's mostly just them having to deal with them being barbarians and foreigners, and not really having time to look at the things which are in ancient China which are interesting, as the guidebook describes factually. It just looks like they have a terrible time, and are very angry at their little sister, and are stuck there for days and can't get back out again. They almost die repeatedly.

It's kind of like the adventure is thrown in for the sake of adventure. There's no character development, there's no real interesting story line, it's just them fleeing constantly. Their little sister is just a cliched plot device to propel the story. Aside from the annoying story, the guidebook is just like, Fact fact fact. Fact fact fact. So it's just an info dump with an irritating story to accompany it. It's not bad. It's not lying. It doesn't have a bad message. I'm not really sure what the message is.

For more children's book reviews, see my website at http://www.drttmk.com.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

We started this book today as part of our China study. All the boys were enthralled and a bit disappointed when I only read half of it. It's part cartoon, part factual/historical information at the bottom. We'll see how it goes.....

We finished this a while ago, sorry for the delay. They continued to love this book and we learned a bit about China. It didn't go into depth (each subject received a few paragraphs) but it did give enough for the younger boys. For older kids you'd need more.

They enjoyed it so much that they begged for the other books. I think we've now purchased all but one or two from the series.

[Shelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a lengthy picture book adventure of three siblings who accidentally travel back in time to ancient China, during the Han dynasty. While there the youngest child wonders off in a noble’s cart and the twins are forced to slowly follow behind in search of her. Along the way they experience and learn much about ancient Chinese culture, but not before finding themselves in series trouble. Can they reunite with their sister and return home?

This is a great book for individuals studying China in World or Ancient History, or just for a fun read. Educators may wish to break up into two reading sessions due to its length.

[Christie Suh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about the disappearance of Libby, which leads to an examination of farming, food, family life, medicine, religion, government, transportation and culture that is both entertaining and educational.