Dar and the Spear-Thrower

It's not easy to find books for young readers about prehistory, but this one gives good facts and the story kept my son interested.

I bought this to read to my second grader and was pleased with it. It was a good engaging story, described well the lifestyle and the possible challenges of living as a hunter gatherer and did a great job imagining the effects of a new technology to the ice age people.

My son and I are reading this story together as a part of our Paleolithic unit. It's beautifully written and really does bring the cro-magnon era to life.Not all of the characters are carefully drawn, but Dar, our main character is a very sympatheitc and believable (if somewhat self-involved) character and his adventuires and misadventures draw us back, bedtime after bedtime, to read not the usual one chapter, but sometimes as many as seven or eight!I highly recommend this one as a read aloud from the age of five or so. Not only is it exciting and an excellent peek into how cro-magnon man lived, it also gets us thinking about age-old questions like what it means to grow up and the value of conformity vs innovation.

Perfect for my 6th grade classroom.

I've had 6th and 7th grade students read this book and they have overall enjoyed it. It fits nicely with 6th grade ancient history studies. This could be called 'pre-historic fiction' as there are direct connections to what archeologists tell of prehistoric man. The cultural diffusion of ideas and technology (tools) is perhaps the greatest 'big idea' for history in this book. Another theme is the transformation of the main character from boy to man.

It's nice book for beginner, good for my daughter as 1st book in her 6th grade.

great story for studying our hunter-gatherer origins. used in my fourth-fifth grade class.

quick read, historical reference, nice story

A short but gripping book. My children (age 6 - 9) really enjoyed it and always wanted me to keep reading. An excellent introduction to the Stone Age. The book really brings the period to life.

This was the perfect way to kick off our project on the Stone Age for my children age 10 and 8. I'd recommend this to any home educating family or any parent wanting to support their schooled child's studies on the Stone Age by reading them a gripping bedtime story!