A bit unfocused but unusual of theme and gratifyingly broad of both historical and geographical scope.
Ten tales of wartime peril and heroism during huge storms, amid trackless mountains, and in the face of other natural barriers and disasters.
Kyi leads off with “Hannibal vs. the Alps” and closes with “Allied Forces vs. the Tora Bora Caves” in Afghanistan in 2001. In between, she chronicles ordeals including Napoleon’s bitter retreat through the Russian winter, a World War II task force’s encounter with Typhoon Cobra, the 1822 battle on the slopes of a volcano that freed Quito from Spanish rule, and a still-ongoing standoff between India and Pakistan for control of the wildly inhospitable Siachen Glacier. Though the author arranges her chapters in no particular order and drifts from her premise in one that pits the U.S. Army’s “tunnel rats” against Viet Cong in the man-made Cù Chi tunnels, she tells a tale that is both coherent and laced with vivid observations and details. Also, an overdesigned layout that features abrupt changes of background color, wedged-in sidebars, smudgy decorative elements, and an uneasy mix of period images with modern photos and melodramatic new illustrations in diverse styles is more distraction than enhancement. Still, the basic material is solid enough to keep readers absorbed.
A bit unfocused but unusual of theme and gratifyingly broad of both historical and geographical scope. (bibliography, source notes, index) (Nonfiction. 11-14)Pub Date: April 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-55451-794-7
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2016
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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