Book Review: Surviving Vesuvius

I don’t know why a lot of kids seem to get interested in lost civilizations and ancient mysteries, and the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE is not really a mystery but certainly an unusual story that can get kids interested in ancient history.

Surviving Vesuvius by Beth Waters and Christopher Harrisson is based on the account of Pliny the Younger, who witnessed the explosion when he was 17 years old and wrote about the ordeal years later to his friend Tacitus. It’s the only know surviving eyewitness account of the events that buried Pompeii and other seaside areas.

The citizens of Pompeii believed the god Vulcan’s forge resided in Mount Vesuvius, and the city had celebrated his feast day the day before the eruption began. At that time, people didn’t know Vesuvius was a volcano because it hadn’t erupted in 1,500 years. There were frequent earthquakes in the area, however, that had been growing in frequency and intensity since before Vesuvius blew.

The book walks through the events surrounding the eruption, checking in with real people who lived in Pompeii and elsewhere (though of course the actual events are dramatized, the general idea of what happened is outlined in Pliny’s letter).

It provides a good overview of what happened and how Pliny’s uncle, Pliny the elder, died after sailing closer to Vesuvius in an attempt to rescue friends. The book describes the social situation in the area, where enslaved people lived or died based on whether their masters decided to evacuate.

It also looks at what happened after the eruption. The towns that were buried by ash and debris were left and nature took back over, but excavations over hundreds of years, as well as using plaster to fill the ash molds of people left behind, have given us a glimpse into what life in Pompeii was like.

This book would be fun to add to a unit study of ancient Rome or for kids who have an interest in true mysteries from history.

About the book: 80 pages, hardcover, published 2025 by Wide Eyed Editions. Suggested retail price $24.99.

Did you know that October is Squirrel Awareness Month? I didn’t know we needed more awareness of these little creatures, but let’s take it as a sign to learn more about squirrels!

Let’s start with some fun facts via Kids Konnect: did you know there are five subfamilies and more that 280 species of squirrels? The smallest are pygmy squirrels and the largest, the Bhutan giant flying squirrel, can be longer that 4 feet (1.2 meters).

Tree squirrels can climb down trees so fast because their ankles can rotate 180 degrees, allowing them to grab the tree bark as they go down. While most squirrels don’t survive their first year of life, they can live five to 10 years in the wild and squirrels have been known to live up to 20 years in captivity!

Rhythms of Play has more fun facts and tips for observing squirrels if you want to add some real life nature to your nature study.

We always like to start these collections with life cycle and parts of the animal printables, so let’s grab the squirrel life cycle an parts of a squirrel worksheets from Montessori Nature. (It doesn’t look like these are free any more but they have a whole unit study on squirrels you can buy that includes life cycle and parts activities, characteristics of different kinds of squirrels, a printable poster, information about predators and more.)

Grab the squirrel lapbook printable (free with email address) from Homeschool Share to learn the parts of a squirrel, where they live, what they eat, whether they hibernate and more. There’s also a nut taste test printable, a place for making observations about squirrels, life cycle of an oak tree, games and more.

Simple Everyday Mom has some cute squirrel themed worksheets including tracing the letter s, labeling the parts of a squirrel and a letter s maze. She also has more activity pages with a squirrel theme, including matching, a more traditional maze and a counting and graphing activity.

Work on letter recognition with this squirrel and acorn game printable from Teaching Mama. I love the idea of hiding the letters in a fall themed sensory bin for kids to find, identify and match to the letter on the worksheet.

For older kids you can do this “if I were a squirrel” writing prompt from Lesson Planet.

And throw in a little counting with these squirrel and acorn tens frame printables from JDaniel4’s Mom, which you can use to count real acorns or any other little fall themed thing you have handy.

Have you read?

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