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.

When my daughter was younger I would spend a lot of time trying to come up with activities she could do in the car on long road trips and things to entertain her when we were waiting at restaurants and things that didn’t involve screens.

But it turns out there are a lot of great activities you can do with just a piece of paper and a pen.

What Do We Do All Day has a great collection of pen and paper games, including some that can be done with just one person, though they’re all more fun if you have at least two.

There are some classics on here like hangman and dots and boxes, but there are also quite a few I hadn’t heard of before.

I don’t want to spoil the whole list for you because you should definitely click over there and look around, but I will share about the one that you see pictured above.

This game is called Bridges, and you start by making the big random shape and the dividing it into a bunch of sections (the post says 30-50 sections is ideal but I think this one is smaller than that).

Each player gets their own color marker and you take turns drawing bridges from one space to another, crossing a third. Once there’s a bridge, no other bridges can start, end or cross in those spaces. Keep going until no more bridges can be built, and the person who makes the last bridge wins.

Check out the post over at What We Do All Day for more great ideas for no or almost-no prep games you can play with your kids or that kids can play together. I’d love to know if you have a favorite paper and pen game, whether it’s on this list or a different one.

[Photo: What We Do All Day]

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