The Story of Gold: A Glittering History of the World

Gr 3-6–Gold proclaims strength, demonstrates love, and promotes financial influence. The search for gold can be a “fever,” taking over people’s lives and putting them in dangerous situations. What is it about this metal that gives it such great power? This book starts at the elemental beginning, describing how the collision of stars produced heavy metals, such as gold, platinum, iron, copper, and tin. While the Earth’s core contains gold, deposits within the reach of humans were formed when asteroids and meteorites hit the surface in the prehistoric era. Gold’s unique characteristics of being very strong yet easy to melt, beat, or stretch into different forms, as well as its rarity, contribute to its value. Combining both scientific and historical information, this book traces the uses of gold throughout different civilizations around the world and through time. Unique illustrations incorporate real gold artifacts into drawn and painted scenes, making the object a seamless part of the picture to demonstrate how it was used or worn. A “Golden Gallery” at the end separates the artifacts out and provides further information about each one, including the page number it appears within the book and the museum locations where many pieces could be viewed.