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MUMMIES AND THEIR MYSTERIES

Name: MUMMIES AND THEIR MYSTERIES
Author: Charlotte Wilcox
ISBN: 0-87614-767-8

by Charlotte Wilcox ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 3, 1993

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``You may have mixed feelings about seeing a mummy,'' writes the author of Trash! (1988) and A Skyscraper Story (1990); but ``remember that a mummy, though once really alive, is now really dead.'' Suggesting that mummies be viewed with respect rather than jokes or revulsion (though she's not above an occasional joke herself—one hideous specimen is labeled ``Miss Chile''), Wilcox uses examples from around the world to show what can be learned from them: why many Egyptian mummies have badly worn teeth; why so few Incan men were found at the burial site near Pisco; what killed members of the 1845 Franklin expedition in northern Canada; the wealth of cultural detail preserved with the bog people; a 5000- year-old hunter recently discovered in the Italian Alps. Wilcox describes the process of mummification, both accidental and deliberate (some Japanese Buddhist priests did it to themselves), and concludes with a look at modern mummies, including a gold- plated cat. Plenty of well-chosen color photos add meat to the bones, both enhancing the lively text and inducing delicious shudders. Glossary; brief list of places to visit; index. (Nonfiction. 10-12)

Pub Date: June 3, 1993

ISBN: 0-87614-767-8

Page Count: 64

Publisher: Carolrhoda

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1993

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL SCIENCES

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CITY OF ANGELS

by Julie Jaskol & Brian Lewis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1999

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Whirls of tiny, brightly dressed people’some with wings—fill Kleven’s kaleidoscopic portraits of sun-drenched Los Angeles neighborhoods and landmarks; the Los Angeles—based authors supply equally colorful accounts of the city’s growth, festivals, and citizens, using an appended chronology to squeeze in a few more anecdotes. As does Kathy Jakobsen’s My New York (1998), Jaskol and Lewis’s book captures a vivid sense of a major urban area’s bustle, diversity, and distinctive character; young Angelenos will get a hearty dose of civic pride, and children everywhere will find new details in the vibrant illustrations at every pass. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-10)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-525-46214-7

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL SCIENCES

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NICKOMMOH!

A THANKSGIVING CELEBRATION

by Jackie French Koller ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1999

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Koller (Bouncing on the Bed, p. 143, etc.) portrays a Narragansett nickommoh, or celebratory gathering, from which it is very likely the tradition of Thanksgiving was drawn. As explained in an exemplary note—brief, clear, interesting—at the end of the book, these gatherings occurred 13 times a year, once each lunar month. The harvest gathering is one of the larger gatherings: a great lodge was built, copious food was prepared, and music and dance extended deep into the night. Koller laces the text with a good selection of Narragansett words, found in the glossary (although there is no key to pronunciation, even for words such as Taqountikeeswush and Puttuckquapuonck). The text is written as a chanted prose poem, with much repetition, which can be both incantatory and hackneyed, as when “frost lies thick on the fields at dawn, and the winged ones pass overhead in great numbers.” Mostly the phrases are stirring—as are Sewall’s scratchboard evocations—and often inspirational—for this nickommoh puts to shame what has become known as the day before the launch of the holiday shopping season. (Picture book. 6-9)