Cleopatra: The Queen of Dreams (What's Their Story)

Alexander is portrayed as an intelligent, often kind man whose only fault was that he murdered people who resisted his efforts to take their land and money. Cleopatra is depicted as a beautiful dreamer who only wanted an empire to call her own. These titles are superficial to the point of being confusing. Most of the pages are taken up by lifeless, full-color illustrations, and what little text there is paints history with a very broad brush. The subject matter (bloody battles, adultery, treachery) is actually quite mature for easy readers. Children interested in these historical figures should be steered toward Frederic Theule's Alexander and His Times (Holt, 1996) and Diane Stanley and Peter Vennema's Cleopatra (Morrow, 1994).