An excellent brief overview of Chinese history. No, it doesn't address everything, but what it does cover it covers well. I came in as a complete novice to the subject and now feel like I have a fairly solid knowledge base to build from.

I received a digital ARC from the publisher via Netgalley.

As a stranger to Chinese history, I felt this was a decent if not great overview that does its best to condense seven thousand years of Chinese history into 150+ pages (not including all of the pictures).

Because there was so much to cover in so little space, much is left out (like the building of the Great Wall—which fascinates Western children—court life, poetry, various influential cultures and ethnicities) or condensed (Mongolian influence, the 1000s-1600s, many dynasties). In an effort to cover a little bit of everything and really showcase how diverse and vast Chinese culture and history is, I felt like the book was more scattered and lacking context for a person not already familiar with Chinese history (like me), particularly in the beginning sections when the author bounced from location to location.

Much of what is covered focuses on pottery and ceramics, and its importance as archeologists uncover the lives of ancient Chinese people—which makes sense from a museum perspective but got a little boring, particularly as I wanted to know more about the politics of China's massive empire and its bureaucracy (some of which is covered fairly well—for the beginning parts of the empire at least), particularly in the last millennium (which was really glossed over compared to the Neolithic and early dynasties through about 600 AD).

It shows that world history goes beyond "Western" culture (particularly with presenting the theory that there are more cradles of civilization than Mesopotamia, something that was not taught in school when I was a kid in the 1990s), but parents and teachers should be prepared to provide additional resources for children interested in going more in depth and learning more about the major technological, political, bureaucratic and artistic advances of Chinese culture.

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

This text is a brief (about 150 pages with pictures interspersed) overview of Chinese history. It is obviously going to be missing a ton of information because it is so brief. For example, it does not go into PRC or modern day China— both of which are topics I think many people are interested in. That being said, I am endlessly amazed by how OLD China is and how many traditions or cultural pieces of history have been carried over thousands of years. This book will give you a taste of some of that. You get hundreds of thousands of years ago, some interesting tidbits about archaeology (the 4,000 year old noodles impressed me!), and then you also get to delight in the dynamic era of different dynasties (my favorite). The dynasties were written about without the panache that Ive enjoyed in other texts, but the writing is largely clear and does give somewhat of an overview. I also was glad to see some brief overviews of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism (my other favorite!). These could have been stronger, too, but there are the basics. The images were very museum-y which makes sense and has it benefits, but also makes the book feel like a textbook. I can see this being used in a class, but the lack of chapter by chapter overviews of each of these big topics makes it harder for someone to assign this as reading. It doesn’t have enough of a storytelling pull to be able to just hand to anyone, but its nonfiction so that also doesn’t seem to be the goal. All in all, I enjoyed reading this, but I am also a bit of a nerd and like reading about China. I can see how many people would find this boring, or on the flip side, too simplistic lacking in details. I’m not exactly sure how this one will land for the best way it can be used, but thanks to the publisher for sending it along, I enjoyed reading it.

I received this as an ARC from the publisher for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book very much, as did my son. It is well written, clear and informative. It takes you on a journey from prehistoric china right through towards the present day. I will be using and recommending this in a educational setting.
I was given a ARC by NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

To be featured on my children’s/middle grade/young adult book blog on the release date. Unfortunately, I was unable to open the book’s file, no matter what program I used, and so I won’t be able to review this one.