Structure

Harari structures his history book in short, well-defined sections which make it easy for young readers to grasp the concepts that he discusses. Consider the first part of the book where he describes the way humans began to differentiate themselves from common animals. This 30-page section is divided into nine different sections. Each of these sections is given a title that describes what that section will be about. These titles, such as “Cooks Have Big Brains” (6), describe what that section will be about. Each section has key sentences in which the type is a different color. In the Cooks section, for instance, the sentence “Once humans had fire, eating became much easier” (11). Illustrations in this section show a person starting a fire by striking two rocks together. Another shows a person scaring away lions and other wild animals using a flaming torch.

Harari’s book begins with...