Mesopo -- Middle Grades Fantasy Novel

 

Disclosure: I am working with The Children's Book Review and Eva Dietrich and they sent me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Today I get to share with you a middle grades fantasy novel. The main character has Iraqi ancestry and the book has ancient world (think Biblical times) references throughout it. The book is Mesopo by Eva Dietrich. Oh, and there is a giveaway at the end of the post!

Ibn al-Haytham -- the Father of Optics and Modern Science #STEM

Do you use a camera? Do you know how we see? Perhaps you use or have used the scientific method? The man behind discovering ideas behind these things and more is Ibn al-Haytham or Alhazen (his name in Latin). He was born in Basra, Iraq in the 10th century. He was a scientist, mathematician, and engineer. He lived during the Golden Age of Islam and benefited because of the knowledge being studied and shared. 

Exploring Modern Day Iraq -- Global Learning for Kids

As August finishes so does our exploration of Iraq. My first two posts on Iraq have been about ancient Iraq (Golden Age of Baghdad and Exploring Mesopotamia). I will admit when we started reading books about Iraq we had many discussions about war and what was happening. It was not an easy topic for us. (I do not let Hazel watch the news to shelter from some of the horrible things that happen in our world.) We took several reference books out of the library and found most of them talked about the war.

Exploring Mesopotamia -- Global Learning for Kids

This month we are exploring Iraq with Global Learning for Kids. Last week we shared our look at the Golden Age of Baghdad with books. As we were reading the stories the Bible story of Abraham popped into my head. Perhaps it is because I have told the Godly Play story: The Great Family. And of course looking at the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and the land inbetween like the story. Then there is the mention of the city of Ur in the books we read as well as in the story. All of these connections made me want to study Mesopotamia a bit more. After all the three major religions trace back their lineage to Abraham.

This is what is left of the house that is thought to have been Abraham's in Ur
By Aziz1005 (Own work) [CC BY 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons

The Golden Age of Islam/Baghdad -- Global Learning for Kids -- Middle Eastern and North African Heritage Month

August Multicultural Kid Blogs celebrates Middle Eastern and North African Heritage Month. This post is part of this series as well as the first of our Global Learning for Kids for August. Global Learning for Kids is exploring Iraq this month. This summer Hazel has really gotten into the Magic Tree House series and I was very excited to find one that takes Jack and Annie to Iraq. It was the perfect way to introduce this country to Hazel.