Featuring beautiful, hand-illustrated maps and packed with fascinating information to feed children's interest in the past, The Kingfisher Atlas of the Medieval World is perfect for all children aged 8 and over. A short introductory section gives a simple overview of the medieval world, explaining that many of the world's countries and cities that we know today grew up during this period, and that trade and religion were major influences on how civilizations were shaped at this time. It looks at how we know about these people and places - from the rich variety of art and architecture that survives today as well as from chronicles and other written evidence. The main section of the book examines a selection of major civilizations in turn. Each main spread is dominated by an attractive, newly commissioned hand-illustrated map featuring pictorial icons which give a real flavour of the civilization it covers. Clear, simple text introduces the civilization and its history before going on to describe interesting details about that society's people and the objects, buildings, stories and ideas they have left behind. Full-colour photographs and artworks add to each spread's appeal. In addition to the main spreads, a small number of features throughout the book focus in more closely on a well-known civilization, allowing readers to build on their interest and find out more about ever-popular topics such as knights and castles and the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan. This atlas is a great reference tool that children will find attractive and enjoyable to use at home and at school, where it will make an ideal accompaniment to other history books. They will love finding out about a wide variety of peoples and places, and discovering who inhabited the world and what life was like in medieval times.