Despite plenty of recent archaeological and paleographical discoveries, ancient Mayan history and culture remain by and large great unknowns—a reality that forces even careful, reputable writers like Mann, author of the brilliant Brooklyn Bridge (1996) and other studies of great monuments, into generalizations and speculation. Here, she sketchily traces the 1,700-year career of a sprawling, strategically placed commercial center that apparently enjoyed centuries of prosperity until falling to an alliance of rivals, then rose again under a series of kings, of which little beyond major building projects and exotic-sounding names seems to be known, before suddenly, for no evident reason, being abandoned around 900 CE. For the illustrations, color photos of elaborately ornamented Mayan art, capped by a striking aerial view of Tikal’s pyramid-strewn Great Plaza today, are interspersed with sometimes uncaptioned painted scenes featuring generic figures laboring, shedding each other’s blood, or standing about to give the city’s magnificent buildings scale. Young readers will certainly come away with an appreciation for Tikal’s ruined splendors, but the art and narrative combine to communicate even more clearly a sense of how little we really know about this complex civilization. Still, a reading list would have been nice, especially considering the pace of new discoveries, and the availability of such engaging related titles as Laurie Coulter’s Secrets in Stone: All About Maya Hieroglyphs (2001). (map, timeline, glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2002
ISBN: 1-931414-05-X
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Firefly
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2002
Another well-researched, well-written entry in a recent spate of books (Jennifer Armstrong’s Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World, 1999), articles, and exhibitions about the amazing survival of the crew of the Endurance. As in the Armstrong book, Kimmel recounts the efforts of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s team, who set out in 1914 to cross the Antarctic continent, but ended up trapped in the ice in a ship which was slowly crushed, then made a painful journey to rescue across ice floes, storm-tossed seas, and a mountain range said to be impassable. With larger photographs and typeface—and fewer novelistic flourishes—than the Armstrong book, this version is appropriate for the middle-grade audience. Kimmel tells the exciting story well; the riveting adventure may inspire further interest in history and exploration. (index, not seen, bibliography) (Nonfiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: Feb. 26, 1999
ISBN: 0-395-91524-4
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
paper 0-8160-3904-6 About 50 new entries, plus occupational and chronological indexes, enhance this new edition of The Biographical Dictionary of Black Americans (1992, not reviewed). The 230 profiles comprise a representative sample of prominent African-Americans born after 1700, and are detailed enough for brief middle-grade reports. Libraries might consider this compact, utilitarian volume as a replacement for the original, or as an alternative to the four-volume African-American Biography (1994). (bibliography) (Nonfiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-8160-3903-8
Page Count: 298
Publisher: Facts On File
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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