The Kids Guide to the Millennium

Christine Linge is a past director of the Toronto & District Parent
Co-operative Preschool Corporation, a freelance writer, and a bookseller
specializing in children’s literature.

With the goal of providing children with safe and educational ways to
participate in the massive millennium celebrations coming our way, this
fun-oriented guide presents 29 activities (games, crafts, recipes, time
capsules, experiments, etc.) alongside a timeline of the last 2000
years.

Several facts about each century have been chosen with an eye to
humor, impact, and historical significance. Thus we find famous events
such as the devastation of the bubonic plague interspersed with quirky
trivia (“France, 508: false beards are banned”) and surprising
tidbits (“China 1500: Wan Hu dies while testing a flying machine made
by attaching gunpowder rockets to a chair”). The global distribution
of these timeline facts demonstrates the authors’ efforts to avoid a
Eurocentric bias. The ongoing debate about the actual starting date of
the new millennium, and about the use of the Christian calendar,
receives little attention. This is pardonable, since the big party will
occur on the evening of December 31, 1999, regardless of culture or
historical accuracy.

Some of these original and inspirational activities re-create games
from the past, while others compare some of today’s activities to
similar pursuits a millennium ago. Historical references are included
for almost every activity. Some activities, such as the
westward-traveling letter, mirror scientific principles. This
educational and entertaining volume will help families to celebrate the
biggest New Year’s of our lifetimes. Highly recommended.