Through text and fun illustrations, this story chronicles a city’s history and archeology over time. The reader discovers artifacts buried but clev- erly made visible in an ant farm-like window on the past. Introduction, Glossary, Index, Webliography.

Each spread in this book shows a city's progression as time periods pass, following a city from the Stone Age to the 21st century, and beyond. Detailed cross-section illustrations will encourage kids to explore this book again and again, finding something new each time. This is a great choice for browsing or for showing kids the progression of time periods and where artifacts come from.

More on the blog: http://www.abbythelibrarian.com/2010/12/city-across-time.html ( )

Peter Kent’s City Across Time
(From the stone age to the distant future)
By Peter Kent
Illustrations by Peter Kent
2010, Kingfisher, Macmillan Books

Review by Debra Louise Scott

Peter Kent takes an archaeologists look at the societal growth of mankind, showing how digging down through layers of soil will reveal how people lived and what they were interested in. Various types of artifacts are explored from stone age tools to what future archaeologists might find when they dig into our layer (cell phones, cars, etc) There are also some good pages about the types of tunnels that are constructed, from mining to secret bunkers.

Cultures are discussed not only in their everyday lifestyle but also in some of the religious habits, from the builders of stone circles to the elaborate trappings of organized religions.

There is a lot going on for each page, with cutouts of houses, garbage dumps, factories, wells, etc, and insets with more information about different slices of the culture. A child could easily spend a good chunk of time examining the whole thing and still find something new next time the book is opened.

For the detail oriented child with a good attention span. ( )