It's the usual excellent book that this series always seems to produce. This is the twentieth title in the series and for each of the subjects covered these are the books to check with in ordering another book on the same subject. Uncompromisingly aimed at the intelligent younger reader, the variety of full color illustrations--reproductions of paintings, photographs, maps, blueprints--adds a full visual dimension to the carefully researched, well written text. This one begins with de Lesseps' first inkling of the potential for a canal at Suez, continues through the really fantastic financing program, explains the international control and Nasser's nationalization of the canal. Stranger than fiction and just as well told as the better adventure stories. There is a list of books for further reading and an index that covers both the text and the illustrations.