Cleopatra

"Serpent of the Nile"

(The Thinking Girl's Treasury of Dastardly Dames)

by
Mary Fisk Pack

illustrated by

Peter Malone

Goosebottom Books, September 2011, 29 pp.
ISBN: 978-0-9834256-0-1

Genre: Young Reader
Subgenres: Biography / Instructional
Reviewed: 11/18/2011

Reviewed by: Conan Tigard

Book Cover

Excerpt

Synopsis

Cleopatra is toted as the richest and most powerful woman that ever lived. She was born in 69 B.C. and became ruler of Egypt and more. Although she was married to her younger brother, her first child was by Julius Caesar. Her next famous lover was Mark Antony, one of the leaders of the Roman Empire. She played a wicked game of wealth and power and killed many people to remain in queen.

The brunt of the book is under the title of Her Story. There are also pages that give other information about: What She Wore, What She Ate, and Just How Wealthy Was She? The book is filled with a mixture of drawn illustrations, maps, old paintings, and pictures of statues, coins, and animals.

Cleopatra "Serpent of the Nile" is an informational biography book about a dastardly dame named Cleopatra. It is written by elementary school teacher Mary Fisk Pack and illustrated by Peter Malone. This book is intended for young readers 9 to 13.

Review

Cleopatra "Serpent of the Nile" is an interesting and well-organized book about the dastardly dame known as Cleopatra. The dark brown backgrounds with white text on each page really make this book feel warm and inviting. I loved the maps and all of the interesting pictures and illustrations. But what really stood out for me was the woman herself. I never really studied about Cleopatra in school and did not know that she dated Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony. I was quite shocked by this bit of information that I should already have known about. Well, now I do thanks to this book.

Right form the first page, I was hooked on this illustrated biography about Cleopatra. I love historical figures and think that this book would make a great resource for any student trying to write a paper about the Queen of the Nile. The text is nice and big and written in a way that I highly enjoyed. I found my wife continuously peeking over my shoulder as I read. I knew she was hooked when she told me to turn the page.

I really liked that the book is not a big and dry biography. Rather, it is only 29 pages long and full of interesting facts and details. It will not take days for a young reader to read through this entire book. It took me about than 30 minutes and I know that if I had to write a report about Cleopatra for school, I could do a bang up job having read this book.

Overall, Cleopatra "Serpent of the Nile" is an excellent book that young readers should really enjoy. It is filled with a lot of great information. Any young reader that is interested in Cleopatra will absolutely love this book. As a former elementary school teacher, I highly recommend this book.

I rated this book a 9 out of 10.