MUMMIES

Tanaka takes readers on a riveting tour of the mummified world, from Europe’s prehistoric Iceman and a 7000-year-old South American child that is the world’s oldest artificially created mummy, to glimpses of Lenin, Chairman Mao and a touring collection of icky modern examples created through a process called “plastination.” Along with introducing several recently discovered examples that may be unfamiliar even to dedicated fans, she comments on what mummies can reveal about their cultures, some of the art and artifacts that have been recovered from burial sites and the causes and methods of mummification—including scientists’ efforts to reconstruct ancient procedures (“ ‘the brain tissue poured out pink, with a little blood, like a strawberry milkshake,’ said one of the researchers”). Well-endowed with close-up photos and fresh insights, this makes an unusually gripping (so to speak) study of the ever-popular topic. (bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 10-12)