The Atlas of the Bible Lands
Grade 4 Up-Although there are a great many maps in this atlas, they are overshadowed by the abundance of historical and cultural information crammed into every page. Du? charts the history of a good portion of the Middle East from prehistory to modern times, with a focus on the area now occupied by Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. An immense amount of loosely organized encyclopedic material is presented in a clear and absorbing manner, although no one area is explored in depth. Among the topics covered on double-page spreads are the Stone and Bronze Ages, the era of the patriarchs, indigenous plants and animals, Egypt and Canaan, area religions, the Exodus, crafts and technology in Old Testament times, Babylonia and Persia, Jesus and early Christianity, the Crusades, Mamelukes and Ottomans, art and the Bible, and the Israeli-Arab conflict today. Each spread is filled with captioned, full-color artwork and paragraphs of additional information on the various subtopics. Illustrations by a variety of artists, reproductions of sculptures, architectural plans, mosaics, and paintings enhance the text. Although this book is well researched and interesting, it has a number of recent high-quality competitors in the general field of Bible reference works for this same age group: Malcolm Day's The Ancient World of the Bible (Viking, 1994), Nigel Hepper's Lands of the Bible (Thomas Nelson, 1995), Antony Mason's Biblical Times (S & S, 1996), Jonathan Tubb's Bible Lands (Knopf, 1991), and Henry Wansbrough's Children's Atlas of the Bible (Barron's, 1997), and others on more specific topics such as daily life in Bible times.Patricia Pearl Dole, formerly at First Presbyterian School, Martinsville, VACopyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.