Stonehenge

School Library Journal

Gr 3-6-Large, colorful photographs enhance each text while side boxes hold interesting, complementary facts. For example, readers are informed that visitors to the Taj Mahal must remove their shoes before entering the burial chamber, in keeping with Muslim religious etiquette. There are some flaws, especially in Stonehenge. To state that "Long ago, people believed that giants and magic played a part in the structure's creation" is speculative. Also, such sentences as "Over the years, religious fanatics, believing Stonehenge was a place for devil worship, have tried to destroy it" appear without sources to indicate where Shofner got her information. And a box in Taj Mahal states that "Mogul emperors delighted in watching convicted criminals writhe to their death from the bite of a poisonous snake...." A "Quick Facts" page in each book lists such details as the composition of the structure and how many visitors it receives per year. Nancy Stone Bernard and Caroline Malone's Stonehenge (Oxford Univ., 2002) is equally suitable for this age group, as is Linda Tagliaferro's Taj Mahal (Bearport, 2005), although the latter title is less detailed than Shofner's. Acceptable where there is a need.-Anne Chapman Callaghan, Racine Public Library, WI Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.