Jeanne Bendick’s book, with pictures and maps by the author, recounts the life of the Greek historian Herodotus, with Herodotus himself as narrator; this fictional biography is based on information drawn primarily from Herodotus’s own Histories. After a look at Herodotus’s birthplace, Halicarnassus, a Greek city-state on the coast of what is now Turkey, we learn what his childhood might have been like; the rest of the book is largely devoted to his extensive travels to the places he wrote about (including Babylon, Egypt and Athens) but also includes brief accounts of the wars between Greece and Persia, including the main battles. Bendick provides a glossary of important names (with their pronunciations) and tells the reader what modern place  names correspond to ancient ones.  – Deborah Roberts