By Crispin Boyer
The whole ancient-Egypt subject packed into 64 busy pages, mummies, pyramids, pharaohs, and gods, with a photo, a map, or a wild fact wherever you open it.
There's no story to follow, and that's the point. It's the whole ancient-Egypt subject broken into short spreads you can open in any order: the pyramids, the pharaohs, how a mummy was made, the gods and goddesses, hieroglyphs, everyday life, King Tut. Every spread is packed, with photographs, illustrations, maps, fold-out "explore-o-rama" pages, quizzes, and a steady stream of weird-but-true facts. Open it anywhere and there's something to look at and something to read aloud.
If you've got a child who'll read anything with a gross fact and a good picture in it, this is an easy sell. There's no story to commit to, just pyramids and pharaohs and mummies with photos on every page, built for browsing rather than reading front to back. That makes it two things at once: a way in for a reluctant reader, and a deep well for one who already can't get enough of Egypt. It won't do much for a child who wants a story to sink into, though. There isn't one.