There may be some rough edges, but the unusually broad definition of “treasure” may move a few readers off the gold standard.
Twenty-three tales of treasures hidden, long-lost, or still lost—from the Lascaux cave paintings to fabled El Dorado.
Though golden troves predominate—led by the treasure chambers beneath the Hindu temple of Padmanabhaswamy, said to contain centuries of precious gifts valued in the multibillion-dollar range—the glittering tally includes cultural prizes too. These include the Rosetta Stone, the Ark of the Covenant, and the sumptuous (and peripatetic) Amber Room that disappeared from Berlin’s City Palace at the end of World War II. With occasional bouts of giddiness likely inspired by all the riches on virtual display (the ancient Jews wandered for 40 years because “they did not have a good satnav, unfortunately”), Honigstein genially describes shipwrecks and other historical calamities, legends, quests, archaeological discoveries, and the treasures themselves with reasonable exactitude. The narrative’s hand-lettered–style typeface (called “Thirsty Rough”) is sometimes printed over dark or multicolored backgrounds, which creates legibility issues, and a few factual or translation errors do creep in (no, Darwin did not claim that humans descended from apes). Also, though Attia’s fanciful cartoon images and reconstructions nicely reflect the author’s light tone, she illustrates the wrong specimen of Archaeopteryx, and her human figures have a certain sameness to them.
There may be some rough edges, but the unusually broad definition of “treasure” may move a few readers off the gold standard. (Nonfiction. 10-13)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-3-89955-797-8
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Little Gestalten
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
In a large, handsome format, Tarnowska offers six tales plus an abbreviated version of the frame story, retold in formal but contemporary language and sandwiched between a note on the Nights’ place in her childhood in Lebanon and a page of glossary and source notes. Rather than preserve the traditional embedded structure and cliffhanger cutoffs, she keeps each story discrete and tones down the sex and violence. This structure begs the question of why Shahriyar lets Shahrazade [sic] live if she tells each evening’s tale complete, but it serves to simplify the reading for those who want just one tale at a time. Only the opener, “Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp,” is likely to be familiar to young readers; in others a prince learns to control a flying “Ebony Horse” by “twiddling” its ears, contending djinn argue whether “Prince Kamar el Zaman [or] Princess Boudour” is the more beautiful (the prince wins) and in a Cinderella tale a “Diamond Anklet” subs for the glass slipper. Hénaff’s stylized scenes of domed cityscapes and turbaned figures add properly whimsical visual notes to this short but animated gathering. (Folktales. 10-12)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-84686-122-2
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Barefoot Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A prolific reporter of paranormal phenomena strains to bring that same sense of wonder to 12 “transposed”—that is, paraphrased from interviews but related in first person—accounts of extraordinary experiences. Some feats are more memorable than others; compared to Bethany Hamilton’s return to competitive surfing after having her arm bitten off by a shark and Mark Inglis’ climb to the top of Mount Everest on two prosthetic legs, Joe Hurley’s nine-month walk from Cape Cod to Long Beach, Calif., is anticlimactic. Dean Karnazes hardly seems to be exerting himself as he runs 50 marathons on 50 consecutive days, and the comments of an Air Force Thunderbirds pilot and a military Surgeon’s Assistant in Iraq come off as carefully bland. The survivors of a hurricane at sea, a lightning strike and a tornado, on the other hand, tell more compelling stories. Most of the color photos are at least marginally relevant, and each entry closes with a short note on its subject’s subsequent activities. Casual browsers will be drawn to at least some of the reconstructed narratives in this uneven collection. A reading list would have been more useful than the superfluous index, though. Fun, in a scattershot sort of way. (Nonfiction browsing item. 10-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4027-6711-1
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2011
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