Not so much a research tool as a compelling browsing item, this crowd-pleasing Aussie import features articles, arranged in several alphabetically arranged topics, on famous mummies ancient and modern. It includes techniques of bodily preservation and of its modern study, plus such sidelights as head-shrinking procedures, the ill-fated Franklin Expedition that disappeared into northern Canada in the mid–19th-century, and “Exploding Kings and Queens.” The author relates her tales with “eeewww”-inspiring relish: as Lord Nelson’s body was preserved in a cask of spirits during its final voyage back to England, “ever since, British sailors have called a drink of rum ‘tapping the admiral.’ ” And after murderer William Corder was hanged, “the local hospital got his skeleton, as well as his brain in a bottle, and a leather shop in London got his scalp and one of his ears. Finally, Corder’s skin was tanned like cow-hide and used to bind a book telling the story of his crime.” Prior gathers examples from every continent except Antarctica, and closes with a child-friendly bibliography for readers who must, just must, know more. Though the illustrations are a disappointing scatter of small photos, filler, and artists’ sketches, this is bound to be a popular choice for fans of the icky as well as budding forensic scientists. (index, glossary, photo credits) (Nonfiction. 9-11)
Pub Date: March 11, 2003
ISBN: 0-375-82287-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
When Mah-jah (Mom in Thai) is hospitalized for depression during a cheerless Cape Cod winter, Nita is taken in by her best friend's family, the kind, calm Stillwater clan. Nita's American father, a ``perfectly polished'' Coast Guard lieutenant, is at a loss himself to understand his wife's illness and escapes to sea. Nita surprises herself by landing the lead in a fifth-grade production of Snow White. (``She'll have to be Snow Brown,'' she is teased.) Playing Snow White lost in the woods (``like her mother must have felt when her family hid from the soldiers . . .'') or lying in her plastic coffin, Nita begins to feel her mother's profound isolation—``a wall of plastic between her and the rest of the world.'' Nita takes the advice of a family friend to speak Thai to her mother, who responds (a little conveniently) in time for Nita's school performance. In another satisfying development, Nita tells off her father to good effect. Like its heroine, this story has quiet strengths and makes for thoughtful and rewarding reading. (Fiction. 9-11)
Pub Date: June 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-8050-4547-3
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1996
This illustrated collection of five dozen short verses—on family, pets, school, disasters, advice—reveals a ham-fisted approach to rhyming, with odes to belching, the fried monkey meat, flatulence, barfing, and dogs peeing in the garden. Sophomoric humor has its place; the problem here is that the verse doesn't scan, and is utterly forgettable, e.g., ``My baby sister's/really swell./I love her smile,/but not her smell,'' or, worse, wooden: ``The winner for attendance/is Mary Anne McKay./She came to school on every day/of Christmas holiday.'' In the introduction, Lansky writes, ``In schools, I recite my own poems, as well as those of Shel Silverstein, Jack Prelutsky . . . If you expose children to the most entertaining children's poems ever written, they just might like poetry.'' Exactly how he fits into the picture isn't quite clear. (index) (Poetry. 9-11)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-88166-245-3
Page Count: 84
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1996
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