Straightforward, fascinating, broad-ranging, and timely; this effort will fully engage budding archaeologists.
Exploring six different archaeological explorations, Scandiffio sheds new light on intriguing puzzles from the past.
A variety of explorations is used to highlight the use of remarkable new techniques for revealing the secrets of the past: Ötzi the Iceman; the use of poison in hunting by African hunters and gatherers; the lost city of Angkor in Cambodia; the search for Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin’s lost ships, HMS Erebus and Terror; the unearthing of the grave of Richard III; and the discovery of Stone Age paintings in the French cave of Chauvet. Each new technique is carefully explained, from lidar (light detection and ranging), which reveals in remarkable detail the vast city of Angkor even though little remains of its mostly wooden construction, to the combined use of mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography to detect traces of plant-based poisons on Egyptian arrowheads. Each chapter begins with a brief, fictional narrative that describes the origin of the object of archaeological interest. Annoyingly, these tales are generally undated, although a few pages later, each chapter includes a timeline that does offer a date for the original event. Helpful text boxes, numerous illustrations, and maps for each chapter extend the narrative, and very good backmatter contributes to the all-around solid presentation.
Straightforward, fascinating, broad-ranging, and timely; this effort will fully engage budding archaeologists. (maps, bibliography, further reading, index) (Nonfiction. 10-16)Pub Date: April 9, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-77321-239-5
Page Count: 116
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
Deftly written and informative; a call for vigilance and equality.
An examination of the history of Chinese American experiences.
Blackburn opens with a note to readers about growing up feeling invisible as a multicultural, biracial Chinese American. She notes the tremendous diversity of Chinese American history and writes that this book is a starting point for learning more. The evenly paced narrative starts with the earliest recorded arrival of the Chinese in America in 1834. A teenage girl, whose real name is unknown, arrived in New York Harbor with the Carnes brothers, merchants who imported Chinese goods and put her on display “like an animal in a circus.” The author then examines shifting laws, U.S. and global political and economic climates, and changing societal attitudes. The book introduces the highlighted people—including Yee Ah Tye, Wong Kim Ark, Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, and Vincent Chen—in relation to lawsuits or other transformative events; they also stand as examples for explaining concepts such as racial hierarchy and the model minority myth. Maps, photos, and documents are interspersed throughout. Chapters close with questions that encourage readers to think critically about systems of oppression, actively engage with the material, and draw connections to their own lives. Although the book covers a wide span of history, from the Gold Rush to the rise in anti-Asian hate during the Covid-19 pandemic, it thoroughly explains the various events. Blackburn doesn’t shy away from describing terrible setbacks, but she balances them with examples of solidarity and progress.
Deftly written and informative; a call for vigilance and equality. (resources, bibliography, image credits) (Nonfiction. 10-14)Pub Date: March 26, 2024
ISBN: 9780593567630
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
Wordplay and wry wit put extra fun into a trove of fundamental knowledge.
With an amped-up sense of wonder, the Science Guy surveys the natural universe.
Starting from first principles like the scientific method, Nye and his co-author marvel at the “Amazing Machine” that is the human body then go on to talk up animals, plants, evolution, physics and chemistry, the quantum realm, geophysics, and climate change. They next venture out into the solar system and beyond. Along with tallying select aspects and discoveries in each chapter, the authors gather up “Massively Important” central concepts, send shoutouts to underrecognized women scientists like oceanographer Marie Tharp, and slip in directions for homespun experiments and demonstrations. They also challenge readers to ponder still-unsolved scientific posers and intersperse rousing quotes from working scientists about how exciting and wide open their respective fields are. If a few of those fields, like the fungal kingdom, get short shrift (one spare paragraph notwithstanding), readers are urged often enough to go look things up for themselves to kindle a compensatory habit. Aside from posed photos of Nye and a few more of children (mostly presenting as White) doing science-y things, the full-color graphic and photographic images not only reflect the overall “get this!” tone but consistently enrich the flow of facts and reflections. “Our universe is a strange and surprising place,” Nye writes. “Stay curious.” Words to live by.
Wordplay and wry wit put extra fun into a trove of fundamental knowledge. (contributors, art credits, selected bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 11-15)Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4676-5
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Aug. 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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