WALK THIS UNDERGROUND WORLD

Cross-section views of underground settlements and sites, from ancient tombs to the cities of humans and prairie dogs.

The creators of Walk This Wild World (2017) here literally take the low road, with stops on each continent except Antarctica. The tour begins with a panoramic look at the busy shopping level beneath the streets of Montreal and the subway beneath that, then goes on to similar views of London and Tokyo. Brewster also digs down to reveal underground warrens populated by leafcutter ants and other creatures, subterranean Berber homes in the Tunisian town of Matmata, elaborately decorated tombs in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, a salt mine in Poland, an opal mine in Australia, and prehistoric fossils buried beneath Mongolia’s Flaming Cliffs. Each graphically tidy setting is rich in details, with human figures (fairly diverse of dress and skin color) and animals engaged in exploration, housekeeping, or other tasks. Baker’s identifying rhyme is the only text visible on each spread at first glance, which invites viewers to take in the overall scene at their leisure before lifting the multiple flaps to reveal illuminating descriptive and explanatory comments, along with fleshed-out versions of dino skeletons and like additional images. Despite a few liberties with scale, these subterranean sojourns will add a new level…or two…to readers’ worlds.

A searching look beneath the surface for young perambulators.