Even pictures are better with pictures!
Art, architecture, history, and culture come together seamlessly in this comprehensive illustrated overview of Western art imported from France.
Even adults and older readers who think they know it all will be pleasantly surprised to find that there is something new to learn in this whimsically illustrated but exceptionally thorough survey. A frame story begins with a grandfather arriving in Paris to teach his two grandchildren art history. (All three are White.) Their questions and answers structure the narrative, which is divided into six sections: Prehistory, the Ancient Middle East and Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance. Important ideas for each section are highlighted or presented in bold typeface, and the big ideas and key works are revisited with color photographs in the final pages of the book. This richly informative text has two particular winning points. First, it makes complete use of the comics format; more than just a clever illustrated story, it uses pictures to include diagrams, double-page timelines, asides, and illustrated examples, all of which allow for deeper understanding and some breaks in the often dense material. Secondly, it presents the history of Western art in sociopolitical and cultural context. This creates a smooth, continuous, robust historical narrative, giving readers access to not just what happened, but also the multiple reasons why and how.
Even pictures are better with pictures! (glossary, index) (Graphic nonfiction. 10-12)Pub Date: July 13, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4645-2
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
An introduction to ancient Egypt and the Pharaohs buried in the Valley of the Kings. The authors begin with how archaeologist Howard Carter found the tomb of King Tut, then move back 3,000 years to the time of Thutmosis I, who built the first tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Finally they describe the building of the tomb of a later Pharaoh, Ramses II. The backward-forward narration is not always easy to follow, and the authors attribute emotions to the Pharaohs without citation. For example, “Thutmosis III was furious [with Hatshepsut]. He was especially annoyed that she planned to be buried in KV 20, the tomb of her father.” Since both these people lived 3,500 years ago, speculation on who was furious or annoyed should be used with extreme caution. And the tangled intrigue of Egyptian royalty is not easily sorted out in so brief a work. Throughout, though, there are spectacular photographs of ancient Egyptian artifacts, monuments, tomb paintings, jewels, and death masks that will appeal to young viewers. The photographs of the exposed mummies of Ramses II, King Tut, and Seti I are compelling. More useful for the hauntingly beautiful photos than the text. (brief bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7922-7223-4
Page Count: 64
Publisher: National Geographic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Bial (A Handful of Dirt, p. 299, etc.) conjures up ghostly images of the Wild West with atmospheric photos of weathered clapboard and a tally of evocative names: Tombstone, Deadwood, Goldfield, Progress, Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickock, the OK Corral. Tracing the life cycle of the estimated 30,000 ghost towns (nearly 1300 in Utah alone), he captures some echo of their bustling, rough-and-tumble past with passages from contemporary observers like Mark Twain: “If a man wanted a fight on his hands without any annoying delay, all he had to do was appear in public in a white shirt or stove-pipe hat, and he would be accommodated.” Among shots of run-down mining works, dusty, deserted streets, and dark eaves silhouetted against evening skies, Bial intersperses 19th-century photos and prints for contrast, plus an occasional portrait of a grizzled modern resident. He suggests another sort of resident too: “At night that plaintive hoo-hoo may be an owl nesting in a nearby saguaro cactus—or the moaning of a restless ghost up in the graveyard.” Children seeking a sense of this partly mythic time and place in American history, or just a delicious shiver, will linger over his tribute. (bibliography) (Nonfiction. 9-11)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-618-06557-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2001
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