Mummies: The Newest, Coolest, and Creepiest from Around the World - Hardcover

Shelly Tanaka has become well known as an author of nonfiction books for children. Most of her nonfiction deals with important events in history-such as the Titanic. She has won numerous awards for her writing. She lives in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

Starred Review. Grade 3-7–Richly colored photographs, many of them large and more than a little grisly, characterize this wide-ranging look at an always-popular topic. After a brief discussion of mummification and the sorts of places in which mummified bodies have been found, Tanaka organizes her text by continent. Simple outlined and colored maps display the countries featured, supplementing the author's descriptions of the local conditions–from the frozen heights of the Andes to the Arctic or near-Arctic steppes to the harsh Egyptian and Chinese deserts. The main text for each mummy or cache of mummies is generally a few paragraphs, often supported by a shorter text, both of which are illustrated by photographs or reproductions. The account of the medieval graveyard at Zeleniy Yar in Siberia, for example, is accompanied by a sidebar about migratory invaders such as the Scythians from central Asia. Tanaka surveys the varying ways in which people prepared the bodies of their loved ones for survival and how scientists have dealt with them after discovery. She includes the 18th-century, skinless mummies that artist Honoré Fragonard preserved using wax and alcohol, and the more recent examples of plastinated bodies and the publicly displayed remains of Mao Zedong and Vladimir Lenin. A short bibliography and an extensive index are included. An impressive addition to shelves that can always use another title.–Coop Renner, Hillside Elementary, El Paso, TX
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