From School Library Journal
Grade 6-9–With balance and lucidity, Kent presents the life and times of one of Western civilization's most significant political leaders. Though occasionally venturing into opinion (as when he calls Rome the strongest nation the world had ever seen) and internalization (As an army general Caesar hoped to win fame as a warrior), the author hews closely to the accepted facts and understandings about the man, frequently referring to or quoting from both ancient and modern writers/historians. After beginning with a short hook chapter concerning Caesar's decision to cross the Rubicon River and precipitate a civil war, Kent moves into a chronological accounting that swiftly and cogently sums up Rome's early growth into a republican empire and places Caesar in his social and political milieu. About a quarter of the text is devoted to the subject's formative years as governor and conqueror of Gaul. Things move swiftly forward in the book's final third: the civil war, Caesar's affair with Cleopatra, his untouchable preeminence, his assassination, and the rise to power of his adopted son Octavian. The author is careful to note the strengths and weaknesses of Caesar's personality and activities–his vanity, his willingness to throw his country into civil war, his kinglike powers are set against his skills as a military commander and governor, his reform of the calendar, his architectural and job-creation programs. This is a balanced, well-written, and solid treatment for libraries needing to add or update their coverage of a man whose achievements still impact the world today.
–Coop Renner, Hillside Elementary, El Paso, TX Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
