GHOSTS OF THE NILE

With characteristic horror vacui, Harness packs verbal and visual information into each teeming, full-bleed spread, sending a young museum-goer and his eccentric great aunt on a quick trip back to Ancient Egypt for tours of the Step and Great Pyramid, plus glimpses of city and rural life, writing, religion, and embalmers at work. Above a running timeline that names nearly all of the Pharaohs from Scorpion to the last Ptolemy (then fast-forwards to the Muslim conquest, and concludes with a worldwide map/chronology), she places explanatory captions near, next to, or often directly atop jumbles of small painted scenes or figures. Despite some spreads with number keys, the resulting super-dense, multilayered presentation may bewilder readers accustomed to linear exposition—but will reward browsers, lingerers, and flippers back-and-forth with a mother lode of facts and history. The thin plot line adds at least a sense of forward momentum to this flashy interest-builder. (bibliography) (Picture book/nonfiction. 8-10)