Clothes for Work, Play and Display by Jacqueline Morley

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Part of the Timelines books.
Created and Designed by David Salariya

Stars: ***

This is written and illustrated by the same people as the Panorama Fashion book. I rated them both as 3 stars but the Panorama one is better. It’s along the same line. These chapters are First Clothes, Classical World, The Dark Ages, Armor and Tournaments, Medieval Times, Farthingales, 17th Century, Court Clothes, Politics, The Military, The Crinoline, Folk Costume, Dress Reform, Sportwear, Between the Wars, The War and After, Traditional Dress (of other countries), Work Clothes, Clothes Today, The Future and Timeline.

What is good in this book is the Traditional Dress section, I just wish it was bigger. Also I like how it is separated into Sportswear, work clothes etc… which makes it easier to see old and new clothes of a certain kind side by side. For example you can see how the football uniform has changed and how similar nurses dress then and now.

What I didn’t like in this book is the Future section which alludes to the 21st Century (2000’s) and yet is NOTHING like what we wear. You can tell it was a prediction of the early 90’s around the same time when people were wondering if we’d be flying instead of driving and stuff like that. It’s even more futuristic than the Jetsons clothing. It’s pretty funny though. Also it is really segmented with little paragraphs inbetween drawings and each drawing has a footnote too. I found my eyes kept jumping all over the picture and I was never sure if I read the whole page by the time I was done.

This book definitely is for a grade 9 reading level.

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About Kathleen

I've been a nonfiction lover for as long as I can remember. I love children's nonfiction as well and love to share my knowledge and the books I gained them from, with the world. I wish more people would give nonfiction a chance.