This brief volume offers only a cursory view of places worth a more intense look.
A slim collection of awe-inspiring sites the world over.
The places are all part of the built environment, created by people throughout the ages, including the Egyptian pyramids, the Parthenon, the Colosseum, Ankgor Wat, the Taj Mahal, and 20th-century marvels like Sagrada Familia and the Sydney Opera House. Each section starts with a large picture of the exterior of the site with one short descriptive paragraph, then continues with a second double-page spread with several rectangular panels highlighting information about the interior, interesting facts, and equipment needed for the trip or souvenirs to buy. While the initial visuals are attractive, the secondary pages do not provide the in-depth details needed to really understand the beauty of many of these sites. For example, the text for Sagrada Familia mentions the interior, yet there are no illustrations of the inside of the building with its fantastic columns that evoke the natural world. The different exterior facades are mentioned, and again, readers are told about the details of Jesus’ life that are depicted, but the illustrations do no justice to the sculptural stories that exist. Although the places mentioned are from around the world, Africa is ignored except for Egypt. This could be used as a jumping-off place for further exploration, but it doesn’t really do the job it set out to do. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11.8-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at 56.4% of actual size.)
This brief volume offers only a cursory view of places worth a more intense look. (map, glossary) (Nonfiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-64686-067-8
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Barefoot Books
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
All those hundreds of witnesses and researchers can’t be wrong, can they? (Nonfiction. 9-11)
A true believer presents the evidence.
Expanding on a partial chapter in her outstanding Tales of the Cryptids (2006), Halls makes her case by tallying Native American legends, the many footprints and reported sightings (a map of the latter claims hundreds from every state except Hawaii), the famous Patterson-Gimlin film, the recorded “Sierra Sounds” and other circumstantial evidence. She also interviews scientists and Sasquatch hunters, includes an account of early searches for Tibet’s Yeti, adds the transcript of a panicky 911 call and even covers some proven hoaxes. She maintains a believer's voice, gently challenging refuseniks: "Serious Sasquatch hunters are as skeptical as unbelievers. They are not out to collect great stories. They are out to put together facts. Proof. The difference is, they are willing to keep an open mind." Illustrated with photos, drawings and archival images aplenty and closing with generous lists of print, Web and video resources this is about as convincing as it gets—considering the continuing absence of any incontrovertible physical proof—and should give young cryptid hunters a good hairy leg up on investigations of their own.
All those hundreds of witnesses and researchers can’t be wrong, can they? (Nonfiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-25761-7
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
As better pictures are available and the humor is too heavy-handed to add style points, that dismissal can serve for this...
An irreverent introduction to China’s long line of emperors, with sidelong glances at life in the outsized but cloistered imperial palace.
The simply phrased answer to a modern child’s titular question offers a jumble of general observations about forms of address, ceremonial duties, imperial officials and consorts, how members of the imperial family were educated, what they ate, and what emperors were expected to do and be. Readers will likely come away more confused than enlightened. The Forbidden City itself, built about 600 years ago, is neither mapped nor described here in any detail; such terms as “eunuch” and “consort” are defined long after they are first used (if at all); and Chinese expressions are discussed (and in one case translated two different ways) without being actually shown. Thick-lined cartoon figures in traditional dress, many with almost identical features, add a comical flavor. They pose on nearly every page with captions and comments in speech balloons that have, to say the least, an anachronistic ring: an emperor’s whiny “I’m stressed out,” is echoed a few pages later by a trio of “pregnant imperial consorts” racing to produce the first-born child; and the deposed last emperor, Puyi, closes with a casual “See ya!”
As better pictures are available and the humor is too heavy-handed to add style points, that dismissal can serve for this whole sloppy effort. (website) (Nonfiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9893776-6-9
Page Count: 108
Publisher: China Institute in America
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
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