LCE 6th grade Electronic Book Review Form

1. Student Reviewer’s Name: Robbie F.
2. Date of review of book: February 24, 2008
3. Complete Book Title: Alexander the Great
4. Author of Book: John Gunther
5. Year the book was published: 2007
6. Genre: Biography
7. Student rating of the book (1 the highest, 5 the lowest): 2

8. Main conflict in the book:
Alexander, at the age of 21, becomes king of Macedonia. He sets off on an adventure to conquer the world, and build his own empire. In his 12 years of rule, he is able to conquer everything but himself.

9. Setting of the book: (place and time)
Go back in time to the year 356 BC, and Alexander the Great was born in Macedonia. This story takes place in Macedonia, Greece, and all over the known world at that time!

10. Main Characters and part they play in the book:
(1) Alexander the Great is the main character of this book. He was affectionate, generous, and loyal. He liked to do services for others, and he loved his friends. Unfortunately, there was another side to his personality. He had no control over his temper. He would often go into crazy fits and had a terrible temper. He showed cruelty to others many times. Alexander was vain. He liked to name the cities he conquered after himself. He made decisions quickly, and was an expert fighter.

(2) King Phillip II and Olympias were Alexander’s parents. In this biography, the reader will find out about how hot-tempered they were. Olympias was extremely possessive and jealous. She liked to sleep with snakes because she thought they were holy. King Phillip II also had a terrible temper. His ambitions were to unite the Greeks, and take over the world.

11. Are the characters believable and interesting?
Alexander the Great was definitely an interesting historical person. It was fascinating to me that one person could be the ruler of the world. It was hard to believe many of the cruel things that he did to achieve his goal.

12. One excellent direct quotation from the book: (include who said it, page number, and
quotation marks!)
When Alexander was 12 years old, his father had just won a great battle. Alexander then said, “ If my father wins any more battles, there won’t be anything left for me to conquer!” (page 27)

13. Good reasons to read the book:
There are many good reasons to read this book, especially if you have to read a biography in class! If you like history and stories about adventure, then this is the book for you!

14. Any reasons not to read the book?
Warning!! Do not read this book if you cannot handle fighting. This biography covers battles of ancient history.

Did you like this book or not? And why…
I definitely enjoyed this book. It not only helped me on my Egyptian project, but it was fun to read. It was amazing to learn about a man who took over the world and changed history forever.