Alexander The Great: King Who Never Lost a Battle

You know a kid who loves battles.Armies, cavalry, generals, ancient Greece. But hand them page after page of plain text and the book goes down.So here is a true story, written like a thriller and illustrated on every page.At twelve, Alexander tamed a warhorse no grown man could ride. Aristotle was his teacher. He crossed into Asia and never lost a battle. At Gaugamela the Persian line ran to the horizon. He found one gap in it, and an empire fell in an afternoon.The pictures are only half of it. Let me explain.The picture, and the story right under itThis is Alexander's whole life, from the boy with the horse to the edge of India by thirty, in 148 pages of story. Every page carries at least one original illustration, and some carry two or three: 156 in all. Under each picture is the paragraph that tells you exactly what is happening in it. The same faces are drawn from first page to last, from the boy with the horse to the king at the edge of India.A reader could follow the whole story from the pictures alone. The writing moves fast, in short sentences, so a strong nine-year-old can read it alone.Every word is trueThe story comes from the ancient historians Arrian, Plutarch, Diodorus and Curtius. When they disagree, the book tells you. It gives you the hard details too. The trader wanted thirteen talents of silver for that horse, and a talent was about sixty pounds of silver. At eighteen, Alexander led his father's cavalry into the Theban line at Chaeronea.A glossary explains every unfamiliar word, and a sources section at the back shows where the history comes from.What you may be wonderingIs it a picture book? No. The paperback runs 166 pages at 7 by 10 inches, with paragraphs of story under the pictures. Scroll down and you'll see two real pages.Is it too violent? It is honest about what war cost, and never gratuitous.Is it in colour? The cover is. Inside, the illustrations are detailed black-and-white drawings.Why this one, when others cost less? A short picture biography gives you a few pictures in a thin book. This gives you 156 illustrations and a whole life, start to finish.Do you need the other books first? No. This is Book 2 of Graphic Chronicles: Epic Conquerors. Hannibal is Book 1 and Genghis Khan is Book 3. Each one stands alone.I'm K.M. Hardie. I spent twenty-five years making complicated things simple to read, and now I do it with true history.For readers 9 to 15 who love battles and ancient Greek history. It makes a good birthday or Christmas present: 148 pages of true story, 156 original illustrations, one whole life.Click Read sample and turn three pages. You'll see what I mean.