LOST CIVILIZATIONS

An attention-getting double cover with a die-cut window is the most—quite possibly the only—memorable feature of this cursory look at two vanished cultures and three abandoned cities. After opening with the startlingly original claim that the Fertile Crescent was where “the first humans walked,” Linnéa sandwiches a chapter on Atlantis between descriptions of the re-discoveries of Ur and the cities of the Maya and of Pompeii and Angkor Wat. Offering a blend of standard facts and outright misinformation—the Mayans “never invented the wheel” (probably wrong, as ancient wheeled toys have been discovered) and “didn’t realize that they could use animals such as mules [and] horses…” (both of which were unknown in the Americas until imported from Europe)—with a spare handful of muddy photos and stylized sketches of ancient scenes or archeologists in action for illustration, this entry in the “Mysteries Unwrapped” series doesn’t come close to measuring up to the likes of Rebecca Stefoff’s Finding the Lost Cities (1998). (Nonfiction. 10-12)