I am not a teacher but I did home school several of my children for eleven years. I liked the premise of this book, and I thought it had some interesting and unusual information in it, but I do think it might be more suited to upper elementary than middle school.

It also seems to me to be more of a resource for a teacher to use, particularly in a classroom, than for students to read themselves (although the teacher would need to make extensive use of a powerpoint to show the illustrations, which are an essential component, for obvious reasons).

I did appreciate the reading lists at the end of each chapter, as well as the resources list. I could see a home schooling family make good use of those.

A good introduction for the intended age group - not in-depth enough for adults. ( )

I received this book as part of the early reviewers program. It is intended for grades 6-8. I teach 12th grade British Lit., but feel that I can still use some of the information for my classes. It is important for students to see that the ancient Brits weren't that different from ourselves. I also like to point out that " literature" comes in many forms, not just the ones we study and write in the classroom. The information is well documented and the list of resources at the end of each section is helpful. The activities at the end of the units aren't as relevant for my students, but may be ok for middle school. While I don't think the content justifies each of my students purchasing this book at 17.95, I will incorporate the ideas into my early lesson plans and have the book available for students to peruse should some of them want to purchase it on their own. ( )

Like other reviewers, I was a little disappointed with the book. I think the premise would be a great way to hook student into history, yet the pictures and content were a bit dull. Similar to other reviews, I did not like that the picture and the text were often not on the same page. I also wish that the pictures showed the actual walls or items, not just the graffiti. Because of that, I thought that the pictures lost their realism. Hopefully there will be some adjustments made in later editions, as I am confident that this could be an interesting and helpful resource. ( )

I like the premise of this book and I can see a lot of possible connections to historical analysis, integrated curriculum, and general learning of history. Sadly, I feel this book misses the mark. The most prominent visual on the cover is of cave art, which is not discussed at all in the text (my spouse teaches about rock art at the university level, and there are great learning possibilities for middle school students). There seem to be numerous factual errors in the text. I was continually frustrated that images discussed in the text were pages away, and did not contain translations of the graffiti within the captions.

However, where I found myself the most frustrated was the lack of connection between the learning activities and…well, learning. Yes, they are fun activities. Yes, students would enjoy them. No, they often do not connect well to the reading and at times, are about topics or skills never mentioned in the text. Of the 9 activities listed, 6 are not related to graffiti, the analysis of this type of historical artifact, or the topics discussed in the reading. (On a side note, I want to add that the archaeologists and historical preservationists I know discourage gravestone rubbings because these can damage the stones over time.) As a history teacher, one of the most difficult challenges I face is having the time to teach everything required. I don’t have the luxury of time for activities that do not tie directly into learning objectives or that don’t help my students improve their skills. For every class activity, it is important to ask the question, “how does this impact student learning?” I felt continually let down when asking this question as I went through this book. I think historical graffiti is a great topic. With some reworking, this could be a very useful teaching tool.

Note: I received a free copy of this book from the LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program. ( )