Synopsis
Describes ice mummies, how they are formed, some of the most famous ice mummies, where they were found, how scientists study them, and what they can teach us about the past.
School Library Journal
Gr 4-6-Both of these books open with attention-getting accounts of discovery, and contain large colorful pictures. Unfortunately, they suffer from a lack of focus, trying to cover too much information in too few pages and jumping back and forth in time. It seems curious to devote as much space to the recovery of the bodies of Sir John Franklin and his crew, who perished in the 19th century, as to the mummies from the Neolithic period. Readers are told that the Iceman's body and artifacts remain the most complete record of the Neolithic period that scientists have, but they are given very little information about what that actually means. The same lack of discussion is evident in Animal Mummies; readers are never told just what is learned from studying them. And while the pictures are dramatic, they are not clearly explained, and the maps are minimally labeled. Readers will be better served by Johan Reinhard's Discovering the Inca Ice Maiden (National Geographic, 1998). Windsor Chorlton's Woolly Mammoth: Life, Death, and Rediscovery (Scholastic, 2001) deals only with this important discovery but gives a much more complete picture of its significance.-Edith Ching, St. Albans School, Mt. St. Alban, Washington, DC Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.