School Library Journal

Gr 2-4-In their follow-up to A Day in the Life of a Poo, a Gnu, and You, cartoonists Barfield and Bradley turn from depicting human biology to covering human history with the same freewheeling spirit-meaning, for example, numerous figures, from Homo erectus to a modern smartphone, personally introducing themselves, and a Bactrian camel offering a tour of the Silk Road. A personified cacao bean provides glimpses of the Maya, and a severed head introduces the French Revolution: "Hello! Welcome to Paris in France in the year 1793." Presented in simply drawn panels and galleries, the hundred or so chronologically ordered entries highlight a broad range of world civilizations and events, as well as monuments, inventions, and art, from cave paintings to Michelangelo's (discreetly shielded) David. Historical figures include Adolf Hitler (who "wanted to make defeated Germany great again"), the Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut, and the courageous Harriet Tubman. The broad scope of the contents is not reflected in their shoehorned arrangement into Eurocentric "Ancient, Middle Ages, and Modern" categories, but the ravages of colonialism and the rise and decline of the slave trade receive somber notice, and a lump of coke and a carbon atom address modern climate issues, too. VERDICT This highlight reel survey may not break any new ground, but it does offer readers in lower elementary grades a broad general picture of our story, from more than a few unusual points of view.-John Edward Peters