Chronicle Encyclopedia of History

As a follow up to Chronicle of the 20th Century, DK Multimedia has just released it's Chronicle Encyclopedia of History which covers the entire span of human civilization. This program is for kids 13 and older. Chronicle Encyclopedia of History presents world events in a newspaper type format which makes the reader feel as if he or she is actually there. Most articles are written in present tense further drawing the reader into the story.

History has been divided into 14 time periods. Within each time period you will find newspaper-like articles complete with headlines screaming out the days news. Along the bottom of your screen you will find a timeline which covers the entire period being studied. Various stories can be clicked on as the timeline progresses. Feature articles for each time period make up the front page. Along the edge of the newspaper run pictures accompanying special interest stories. These generally link to bizarre, humorous, or particularly interesting articles. Once you are finished completely exploring one period of history you can turn the 'page' and move on to the next, complete with page turning sounds. Many of the articles contain video or audio clips, although do not expect as much multimedia as you would see in a regular encyclopedia.

From the main screen your children can isolate areas of study. There is an area devoted entirely to inventors, one to film clips and several others to general areas of study. Chronicle Encyclopedia of History also has search capabilities which allow your children to pinpoint a particular interest or area of study. A 3D flying timeline is interesting but clumsy. A timeline scrolls toward you as items fly through a window showing your children things which happened during this time period. If a particular flying item is of interest, your child is to click on it. More often than not it is impossible to tell what the item is. This is interesting technology, but was not terribly useful in my opinion.

The journalistic style writing makes the text easy to read and more enjoyable than most encyclopedia references, which tend to be rather dry. My only concern with this program is it's accuracy. Like most people, when checking out an encyclopedia I jump to something very familiar to me so I can "see what they have said" about a topic I am familiar with. In one other DK Multimedia product I reviewed I found several major cities from my home state of Utah misspelled. In this program searched for Mormons to see what they had to say. Several serious errors made me question the accuracy of other articles for which I have no experience to judge. Either there are flaws in some of their research, or they just have a thing about Utah and Mormons. I would suspect the first. I did not notice any glaring inaccuracies throughout the rest of the program, but like most of you do not claim to have a photographic memory when it comes to historical detail. I would not let this concern me enough to stay away from the program, but I would not use it as the sole historical reference in my house.

This is an interesting history program written from a very different and interesting point of view. This would be particularly good for kids who have found other reference programs dry and have avoided reading the text. The reading level is for kids 13 and older. Easy to read text and articles dealing with human interest items (like where the first flush toilet came from, or the lady pharaoh who wore a fake beard) make this program more appealing than many other historical references.

Grading for Chronicle Encyclopedia of History

Educational Value: 3
Entertainment Value: 3
Use of medium: 3
Dollar Value: 3
Age: 13+

Buy 20th Century Day by Day/Chronicle Encyclopedia of History Bundle at Amazon!