Do you ever get the urge to yell “You have too many things!” to your grandchildren? It’s not worth giving way to such an urge. They won’t know what you’re talking about. They brush aside your posturing and ask for some impossible thing that they want you to get, now.
It’s just pointless telling them that your generation did some regular work at home, earning pocket money thus being able to buy things. When I wanted a thing, no one immediately left for the shop to pander to my passing whim and, by the way, I didn’t have a personal DVD player and certainly no Playstation. No Wii. No mobile phone either.
They don’t know how pampered they are!
So I’m hoping the content of this little book will somehow filter through the head of the youngest one. It’s history, yes, all in the past but people did live as slaves once. I’m sure my family was on the lower rungs of the ladder.
You Wouldn’t Want To Be is an on-going series. Each book combines a factual eyewitness narrative with cartoon-style illustration.
This one is an introduction to Ancient Sumeria, where Western civilisation began. Jokes and bright illustrations show what life was like for Sumerians, how some of them became slaves, and what jobs slaves they were forced to do.
It may not change the attitude of a 7 year old overnight but it’s a darned good way to slip in a history lesson without being caught.
You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Sumerian Slave!: A Life of Hard Labor You’d Rather Avoid