Addy, Sharon Hart 1997 Right Here on This Spot. Houghton Mifflin, Boston.

Reading level 2nd through 6th.. Nice watercolor pictures but they don’t show very much.. A relatively simple rather poetic description of events taking place in a single spot at various points in time. People begin finding the evidence and an archaeologist is called in to explain things.. No information about what the archaeologist does – he just “studies carefully” – but it does convey the idea that many things have happened in what looks like any empty field.. Might make a good book to read aloud to a group of kids and start an interesting discussion.. Moderate recommendation.

Agenbroad, Larry D. and Lisa Nelson
2002 Mammoths: Ice Age Giants. Lerner Publishers, Minneapolis.

• Grades 5-9
• Detailed, readable survey of mammoth natural history. Topics include physiology, distribution, fossil finds, and extinction theories.
• Side boxes on ice age hunters, geologic time and other topics.
• Well illustrated and includes a glossary.
• Recommended by library reviewers

Aliki
1979 Mummies Made in Egypt. Harper Collins, New York.

• Easy reader or read aloud for young children
• Very detailed information about how and why mummies were made, humorously related. Always a fascinating subject for kids.
• Detailed illustrations.
• Highly recommended

Aliki
1976 Corn is Maize: The Gift of the Indians. Harper Collins, New York.

• Easy reader. Good for reading aloud to pre-readers, easy for early readers.
• Very factual. Well told story about the history of corn and how it was domesticated.
• Talks about Indian uses through modern agriculture and diverse non-food uses.
• Directions for a corn husk doll and corn husk wreath at the end.
• Highly recommended.

Aliki
1990 Fossils Tell of Long Ago. Harper Collins, NY.

• Early readers or read aloud.
• A multicultural group of children visit a museum and learn about all kinds of fossils and how they are formed.
• Ends with a handprint “fossil” activity that children can replicate.
• Highly recommended.

Aliki
1996 Wild and Wooly Mammoths. HarperCollins, NY.

• Easy reader (1st through 3rd grade) or read aloud for pre-readers.
• Tells of a find of mammoth fossils and discusses the ice age and ice age hunters.
• Good, colorful illustrations.
• Highly recommended.

Arnold, Caroline, Photographs by Richard Hewett.
1996 Stories in Stone: Rock Art Pictures by Early Americans. Clarion Books, New York.

• Older reading level. 5th or 6th grade and older. Text straight forward and clear, academic in tone.
• Very lovely rock art pictures.
• Good summary of North American prehistory and discussion of changing technology, climate, and lifestyles in the southwest.
• Good discussion of rock art: its uses, who made it and why, and attempts to date it.
• Highly recommended.

Arnold, Caroline
2002 When Mammoths Walked the Earth. Clarion Books, NY.

• Age range 5-8 years (K-3)
• General discussion about the Ice Age in general and mammoths specifically. Includes discussion of significant fossil finds.
• Introduces a lot of scientific vocabulary but the explanations are clear and concise.
• Lovely color illustrations.
• Highly recommended for reading or for a reference.

Arnold, Caroline
2000 Easter Island: Giant Stone Statues Tell of a Rich and Tragic Past. Houghton Mifflin Company.

• Ages 4 to 8 years old
• Caroline Arnold's highly illustrated children's book provides a treasury of information on the most mysterious of islands, Easter Island (Rapa Nui). The island is noted for its unique stone statues. The book describes the formation, geography, ecology, and inhabitants of the isolated Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean. This chronological history of Easter Island tells how the stone statues got there & what they mean.
• Side bars, maps, index, glossary, fun facts, additional reading.
• Best Book of the Year by School Library Journal (December 2000 issue of SLJ)
• Best Bet for the Classroom 2000 by the Virginia Center for Children's books
• National Council for Social Studies/Children's Book Council
• Notable Children's Book in the Field of Social Studies
• Excellent 2000 Choices of Trade Books for Grades K-9 by Marilyn Carpenter, Ph.D., Eastern Washington University

Avi-Yonah, Michael
1993 Dig This! How Archaeologists Uncover Our Past. Runestone.

• Written for young readers – grades 4-8
• A summary of archaeology: what it is, how it is conducted, important historical figures in the field, and what has been learned from the study of remains of past human life. There are brief descriptions of the cultures in the Middle East, Asia, the Mediterranean, and the Americas. The writing has a text-bookish flavor.
• Recommended by the National Park Service Archaeology Project.

Barnes, Trevor 2004 Archaeology. Kingfisher Knowledge Books. Reviewers place it a 4th through 8th grade reading level. Includes websites, book lists, glossary, and other resources about archaeology and prehistory.

Good discussion of what archaeology is all about, including history and an emphasis on the responsibility to share their discoveries with the world. Talks about finding out about everyday life but illustrations and detailed discussions focus on “big finds” such as cities, temples etc. – Cahokia and the Little Bighorn are the only sites from North America included. Basic discussion is useful, lovely pictures. Recommended.

Brett, Jan
1988 The First Dog. Voyger Books, New York.

• Grades pre-school to grade 1
• Fiction. A simple story about how the first dog may have been domesticated. A boy shares his food with a wild Paleowolf and is, in turn, saved from a saber-toothed cat by Paleowolf’s warning.
• Highly recommended.

Buell, Janet
1998 Ancient Horsemen of Siberia. Millbrook Press, Incorporated.

• Grades 6-9
• Describes the excavation of the burial site of a Pazyryk woman, her horses, and her possessions, all preserved in an icy tomb in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia and examines how the Russian archeologist Natalya Polosmak and her colleagues made educated guesses about the lives and culture of individuals who rode horses and tended other animals 2500 years ago. The team studied artifacts from this and other Pazyryk burials and examined the ethnography of the customs of modern-day people living in the region.
• No matter how complex the subject, the information is lucidly presented, carefully footnoted, and illustrated with high-quality photographs.
• A timeline, an excellent glossary, and suggestions for further reading (including Internet sites) are valuable additions.

Buell, Janet
1998 Greenland Mummies. Millbrook Press, Incorporated.

• Grades 5-8
• Describes the discovery of mummies in Greenland in 1972 and the work of forensic anthropologists who investigated the remains of these members of the Thule culture, ancestors of today's Eskimos. By examining mummified human corpses found in Greenland, archaeologists have been able to reconstruct the life & culture of Inuits who lived 500 years ago. The recent discovery of mummified human corpses in Greenland produced studies that reveal how the Inuit people lived in the far north 500 years ago.
• Includes bibliographical references and index

Chorlton, Windsor 2001 Wooly Mammoth: Life, Death and Rediscovery. Scholastic Reference, Inc., NY.
Ages 9 and older A retelling of the discovery of a single mammoth encased in ice (the Jarkov mammoth) in Russia. Provides basic information about mammoths and other ice age animals. Written partially in diary form. Emphasizes the excitement of scientific discovery and even encourages students to consider the ethics of DNA cloning. Recommended by library reviewers.

Clark, Patricia Nikolina
2003 In the Shadow of the Mammoth. Blue Marling Publishers.

• Ages 9-12
• Fiction. Coming of age story based on an 11 year old boy who lost his father on a mammoth hunt, creating a crisis of confidence. He must face a number of challenges including rivers and saber-tooth cats but the greatest is hunting the mammoth that killed his father.
• The setting in Paleoindian times is well done.
• Some reviewers comment that the plotting and pace is slow. Others praise the story. Nominated for two book awards.
• Recommended.

Cole, Joanna and Bruce Degen
1997 The Magic School Bus Shows and Tells. Scholastic.

• Easy reading 1st through 4th grade or read aloud.
• Fun with Ms Frizzle and the kids. Bright, colorful and funny.
• Shows how archaeologists go about determining what something was used for by employing the scientific method of question – hypothesis - testing. Encourages the readers to try their hand at guessing as well.
• Highly recommended.

Cork, Barbara and Struan Reid 1984 The Young Scientist Book of Archaeology: Discovering the Past with Science and Technology. edc Publishing, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
	The style of this book makes it a good reference and browsing book for interested students 5th – 8th grades. It would answer a lot of their questions. Also a useful adult reference. Not written in narrative format, rather, there are short blurbs in boxes with interesting little illustrations. There is lots of good information. Each page has a specific topic: how things are destroyed, how things are preserved, piecing the evidence together, burials and bodies, radioactive dating etc. Good, accurate information. The examples and illustrations are all from Old World sites and artifacts. Recommended as a reference.

Deems, James M. 1998.
1998 Bodies from the Bog. Houghton Mifflin Company.

• Age Range: 10 to 14, Grade Range: 5 to 9.
• Describes the discovery of bog bodies in northern Europe and the evidence which their remains reveal about themselves and the civilizations in which they lived. A riveting book about the various humans from past European cultures who were mummified in bogs and discovered centuries later, with striking color and black-&-white photographs.
• Striking color & black-and-white photographs, this is a riveting book about the various humans from past European cultures who were mummified in bogs & discovered centuries later.
• School Library Journal Best Books of the Year winner 1998.
• American Library Association Notable Books for Children winner 1999.
• Nominated for Young Reader's Award 2002.

Donoughue, Carol
1997 The Mystery of the Hieroglyphs. Oxford University Press, NY.

• Probably best for middle school students or really curious 4th and 5th graders. Text is involved and dense. It gives the history of the discovery of hieroglyphs, their translation, and lots of information about reading them. Many illustrations and side bars of information. You can learn a lot without reading the actual text.
• Teachers might also find it useful - It immediately gives me ideas for activities related to early writing and hieroglyphics.
• Aside from the story of the Rosetta Stone there is not a lot about archaeology and especially not about modern archaeology.
• Recommended as a reference.

Duke, Kate 1998 Archaeologists Dig for Clues. HarperCollins. “Level 2” easy reading. “Magic School Bus”-style text and illustrations. Grades 1-4. Lots of good, detailed information about what archaeologists do and why. Extra good point – “archaeologists hardly ever find treasure…they want to learn about how people lived”.
Many side bars of factual information such as a time line, how things get buried etc. and some suggested additional activities. Very humorous. Highly recommended.

Echo-Hawk, Roger C. with Walter Echo-Hawk
1994 Battlefields and Burial Grounds: The Indian Struggle to Protect Ancestral Graves and Human Remains in the United States. Lerner Publishing Group.

• High school and older
• A solid discussion of the conflict over Indian graves that have been plundered in the name of scientific research.
• Author is a Pawnee tribal historian.

Erickson, John R.
2004 Discovery at Flint Springs. Viking, New York.

• Chapter book – reading level ca. 4th grade and up.
• Fiction. Mystery/Adventure. Set in 1920s. Two boys learn about prehistory of Texas and archaeology from an archaeologist working on a site is found on their property. They then discover their own site and report it to the archaeologist and protect it from looters.
• Very factual account of Texas panhandle prehistory and archaeological methodology.
• Strong anti-pothunting message. The kids must save the site from looters and convince local grownups why it is important.
• Highly Recommended.

Fagan, Brian
1994 Time Detectives: How Scientists Use Modern Technology to Unravel the Secrets of the Past. Touchstone, NY.

• Advanced reading level – High school and up.
• Narrative discussion of many well known sites from around the world. Sets up the famous site or a question about a region and then explains how the archaeologists know what they say they know.
• Emphasizes the diversity of sources of information and the care required to piece together a story.
• Not for young students but well written and readable. Adults would find it interesting and it would be a useful reference for someone preparing lessons on the subject. You do not need specialized knowledge to understand the explanations.
• Recommended as a reference.

Fagan, Brian
2003 Archaeologists: Explorers of the Human Past. Oxford University Press.

• No age recommendation – 272 pages, so I would suggest middle school and older. NPS says “young readers”.
• Fagan collects together biographies of more than 30 archaeologists of the past two centuries including eccentric professors and adventuring fortune hunters of old and highly trained scientists of today, In the process, he presents a portrait of how digging for treasure evolved into the respected and vital science we know today. Topics discussed include: golden pharaohs, lost civilizations, computers, tree ring dating, and numerous other scientific methods.
• Recommended by National Park Service Archaeology Program.

Fradin, Dennis
1983 New True Book – Archaeology.

• Early grades reading level, 3rd-6th.
• Good, simple introduction to archaeology BUT it does show archaeologists digging up graves.
• Recommended with the caution that North American archaeologists no longer dig up Native American graves.

Frasier, Debra
1998 Out of the Ocean. Harcourt Children's Books.

• Age Range: 4 to 8, Grade Range: Preschool to 3.
• SEBA Book Awards winner 1999.
• Minnesota Book Awards winner 1999.
• Synopsis not available.

Gerrard, Roy
1992 Mik’s Mammoth. Sunburst Publishers, New York.

• Grades pre-school to 3
• Fiction. Mik, a timid but intelligent “cave man”, is not valued by his tribe until he befriends a mammoth and the two friends save the tribe from “hordes of hairy men”. A tale of brains and wit winning out, told with droll humor.
• Beautiful watercolor illustrations.
• Highly recommended by librarian reviewers.

Goodman, Susan E.
1998 Stones, Bones, and Petroglyphs: Digging into Southwest Archaeology, an Ultimate Fieldtrip. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, New York.

• 3rd grade and up
• Scrapbook style chronicle of a fieldtrip to an excavation in the American southwest with a group of school students. Focuses on archaeology and culture of the Anasazi. Includes working on an excavation and trying out skills and games from the past.
• Lively, colorful photographs for illustrations.
• Librarian reviewers give it five stars.
• Highly recommended.

Giblin, James Cross
1999 The Mystery of the Mammoth Bones and How It Was Solved. Harper Collins, NY.

• Ages 8-12
• The story of the discovery of the 1801 mammoth bones in New York and how it was determined what it was and what it meant about past life and climate etc.
• Detective story pacing
• Emphasizes how astonishing it was to suggest that there was a time when such different animals lived and that they had become extinct.
• Recommended by library reviewers.

Griffin, Peni R.
2004 11,000 Years Lost. Amulet Books, New York.

• Readers 4th or 5th grade and up
• Fiction. After discovering an 11,000-year-old spearhead, 11-year-old Esther Aragones becomes fascinated with learning about the Ice Age Clovis people. Esther steps between two trees and finds herself transported to the Ice Age and unable to get back to her own time. She is taken in by some nomadic mammoth hunters. Esther learns their language and their ways and joins the women and girls as they forage for plants to be used for food and medicine. Very adventurous and based on sound archaeological research about Ice Age life.
• Highly recommended.

Hackwell, W. John
1986 Digging Into the Past: Excavations in Ancient Lands. Charles Scribner’s and Sons, NY.

• Middle School and older.
• Very detailed and accurate text about the many and varied aspects of an excavation in the Middle East. Describes the project goals and the many specialized tasks required to do the job.
• Text is dense and a little dry. Not very exciting illustrations.
• Low recommendation.

Hackwell, W. John 1987 Diving into the Past: Recovering Ancient Wrecks. Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York.
Written for upper elementary age students. Offers a short introduction to marine or underwater archaeology. Recommended by National Park Service Archaeology Program.

Hehner, Barbara
2001 Ice Age Mammoth: Will this Ancient Giant Come Back to Life. Crown Books for Young Readers.

• Reading level 9-12
• Recounts the story of the mammoth found encased in ice in Siberia. Provides much factual information on mammoth natural history and the relationship between mammoths and prehistoric hunters.
• Discusses the possibility of cloning and the creation of a modern day Pleistocene Park
• Brief readable text, many information boxes, highly praised illustrations
• Recommended by librarian reviewers.

Higginson, Mel
1994 Scientists Who Study Ancient Temples and Tombs. The Rourke Corporation, Vero Beach Florida

• Easy reading ca. 3rd grade.
• Defines culture and artifacts and explains in very general terms what archaeologists do and illustrates with varied locations.
• If I were recommending books to use or purchase this would not be one – it is OK but the picture of an archaeologist excavating burials in Florida, the tendency to look at the spectacular (Tut’s Tomb, Temples etc.) and lack of detail about how archaeologists work make it a poor choice when there are so many better books for the same reading level.

Lauber, Patricia
1998 Painters of the Caves. National Geographic Society.

• 5th grade and up – even adults would find it interesting and enjoy the cave art and National Geographic pictures.
• Starts with discovery of Pleistocene rock art in southern France (Chauvet Cave) by a child in 1994 and continues to talk about the time period and the people using material from all over Europe.
• Presents hypotheses about why the rock art was made and what we can learn from it.
• Very lovely color photographs – including rock art, artifacts, maps, reconstructions etc.
• Highly Recommended.

Levy, Elizabeth 2001 Awesome Ancient Ancestors! Mound Builders, Maya, and More. Scholastic Books.

Reading level 3rd to 4th grade Written to be funny with cartoon-like illustrations. Side bars about specific sites, time lines, or other facts. There is a great deal of misleading information (like the picture of the saber tooth cat and the T. Rex looking in the window at the prehistoric people). After the Paleo-Indian period most of the discussion focuses on the American Southwest and Central America with some talk of the Hopewells, mound building, and Cahokia. Not recommended. There are too many incomplete facts and complete misstatements to make this reliable.

Levy, Elizabeth
2002 Who Are You Calling a Wooly Mammoth? Scholastic Inc.

• Reading level 3rd through 6th grade
• Uses slapstick and wisecracks to tell the story of prehistoric life.
• Not very detailed, too many generalizations
• Humor and brief text may appeal to reluctant readers.
• Moderate recommendation.

Logan, Claudia
2002 The 5,000 Year-Old Puzzle. Melanie Kroupa Books. New York.

• Grades 3 – 6
• Set in 1924. Based on a real Egyptian dig – a new tomb is found but things aren’t right and the mummy turns out to be missing. Clues are given and possible solutions offered. Reader is invited to suggest their own solution.
• Lots of side illustrations and fact boxes.
• Talks about archaeologists working carefully and keeping thorough records etc.
• 1920s attitudes reflected in some portions.
• Recommended.

Macaulay, David
1975 Pyramid. Houghton Mifflin Company. 1975.

• Age Range: 7 to 9, Grade Range: 2 to 4.
• The author describes how an ancient Egyptian pyramid was constructed. The engineering and architectural feats of the Egyptians are explored with beautiful, detailed drawings
• Christopher Book Awards winner 1976.
• Nominated for Boston Globe-Horn Book 1976.

Malone, Caroline and Nancy Stone Bernard
2002 Stonehenge. Oxford University Press.

• Recommended for ages 10 and up.
• Explores the myths legends and lies that have revolved around Stonehenge over the centuries and discusses how archaeologists have formed and tested hypotheses about the site. Includes an interview with the archaeologist.
• Easy to read and archaeologically accurate.
• Excellent illustrations.
• Good recommendation.

Mann, Elizabeth Laura Turco (Illustrator)
1996 The Great Pyramid: The Story of the Farmers, the God-King and the Most Astounding Structure Ever Built. Mikaya Press.

• Ages 7 to 12
• The building of this architectural marvel is told graphically, with details on the society of ancient Egypt.
• Well illustrated

Martin, Rafe
1989 Will’s Mammoth. George Putnam’s Sons, New York.

• Ages 4-8
• Fiction. Tells the story of a boy’s imaginary epic in the world of mammoths and saber-toothed “tigers”, wolves, and bears.
• No reviews available.

Matthews, Rupert
1989 Ancient Mysteries. The Bookwright Press, New York.

• Reading level middle school
• Fits the 2007 Mysteries theme but does not really tell us a lot about archaeology.
• Not recommended – highlights the mysterious aspects of sites or events (spends way too much time on the “curse of the pharaohs” without sorting out how much is legend, rumor, coincidence etc). Raises all kinds of possibilities for solutions to archaeological “mysteries” including curses and space aliens without much consideration of the actual facts and reality.

McGowen, Tom
1997 Adventures in Archaeology. Scientific American Sourcebooks. Twenty-First Century books, New York.

• Reading level middle school or upper elementary.
• Emphasizes that exciting finds have been made all over the world.
• Good straight forward summary of what archaeology is all about – features, artifacts, ecofacts, context. As well as a clear summary of the history of the field.
• Nice discussion of dating techniques.
• If a teacher is looking for quick answers all basic questions about the why and how of archaeology Chapter 1 is a good source. It is not long and the explanations are clear and jargon free.
• Focuses on big “discoveries” of Pompeii, Copan, Assyrian sites, Troy, Minos, Inca, the Shona in Africa, cultures in Pakistan, and mummies and graves. As a result, there is something of an emphasis on “civilizations” and “big” discoveries but they do try to look all around the world – sadly, except for a brief mention of Mound Builders, North America is not represented.
• Nice chapter on early writing.
• Not exciting in writing style but very clear and accurate. Highly recommended for discussions of archaeology in general. Too bad they left out Native Americans.

Mellor, Ronald The World in Ancient Times: Primary Sources and Reference Volume. Oxford University Press.
	Middle School reading level. This is more of a reference book rather that a read-straight-through book. It is the final volume of an 8-volume series by the Oxford University Press written for students between 10 and 14. An excellent introduction for middle school students to the ancient literature of the world's civilizations. Recommended by archaeologist reviewer Kris Hirst.

Millard, Anne
1989 How People Lived. Dorling Kindersley, Inc. New York, London.

• Actual text is at a middle school reading and vocabulary level; however, because there are very short bits of text associated with highly detailed illustrations this book may be appealing to younger students as well – ca. 4th grade.
• Detailed pictures of daily life with short bits of text explaining what is going on. Pictures are from all around Europe, Middle East and Asia. Nothing from the New World. Cultures examined are all historic (Egypt, Rome, Greece, Vikings, Ur, Medieval England, China etc.)
• No information about archaeology, that is, how the information was obtained.
• Recommended.

Millard, Anne
1996 Mysteries of Lost Civilizations. Copper Beech Books, Brookfield, Conn.

• Reading level Middle School and up.
• Describes the cultures, cities, people, and objects of ancient civilizations based on evidence from archaeological findings.
• Focus on the “classical world” – includes a little bit of Central and South America but no North America (1 mound reference) or Africa.
• Very nice illustrations accompanied by somewhat confusing little blurbs of text about many scattered sites and civilizations.
• Does discuss archaeology and how researchers can use legends, documents, etc to find out what actually happened. Talks primarily about how things get “lost” or destroyed, not much about archaeological recovery techniques.
• Not highly recommended. Fits “Mysteries” theme but tells so little about so many places that it wouldn’t mean a lot unless you have some other background about these civilizations.

Millard, Anne and Steve Noon (illustrator)
1998 A Street Through Time. DK Publishing, NY.

• Text brief but has a pretty sophisticated vocabulary (ca. 4th grade and up) but younger kids will enjoy just looking at the illustrations.
• This is a great book tracing the history of a single location, a street in England, through 12,000 yrs.
• Extremely detailed illustrations showing all types of things going on in a busy location. You can look at them for a long time and see more things each time – some are silly and kids will enjoys finding them. There is one accident prone fellow who appears in all the pictures (like Waldo) to search for.
• No information about how archaeologists work.
• Highly recommended.

Millard, Anne and Steve Noon (illustrator)
2005 A Port Through Time: A 10,000-year Journey from Trading Post to Modern Seaport. DK Publishing, NY.

• Text brief but has a pretty sophisticated vocabulary (ca. 4th grade up) but younger kids will enjoy just looking at the illustrations.
• This is a great book tracing the history of a single location, a sea port, through 10,000 yrs.
• Extremely detailed illustrations showing all types of things going on in a busy port. You can look at them for a long time and see more things each time – some are silly and kids will enjoys finding them. There is one accident prone fellow who appears in all the pictures (like Waldo) to search for.
• Around the margins are simple time-line facts and prompts for things to look for in the pictures.
• More info about trade and boats in the back.
• No information about how archaeologists work.
• Highly recommended.

Miller, Debbie S.
2001 A Wooly Mammoth Journey. Little, Brown. New York

• Grades 1-4
• Fiction. An anthropomorphized matrilineal family of wooly mammoths living 12,000 years ago is chronicled through a year’s activities.
• Provides a good sense of the animals and the ice age setting. Even includes ice age hunters.
• The concluding page presents factual information about the animals and the time period.
• Lovely illustrations.
• Recommended by librarian reviewers.

Moloney, Norah 1998 The Young Oxford Book of Archaeology. Oxford University Press.

Written for middle school age: grades 5-8 A reference type book. Contains many photographs and illustrations. It introduces human evolutionary concepts as a basis for a timeline. Chapters cover introductory subjects such as "What Is Archaeology," "When Did It Happen" (dating methods), "Saving Our Heritage," "Underwater Archaeology," and "Ethnoarchaeology." Special treatments for the advent of agriculture and the ancient civilizations of India, Egypt, Greece, and Mexico. Good for reference and browsing. Text is sophisticated and may be difficult to read “cover to cover”. Recommended by National Park Service Archaeology Project and library reviewers.

O’Brien, Patrick
Mammoth. Henry Holt and Co., New York.

• Grades K-3
• This books starts with hunters killing a mammoth 20,000 years ago then fast forwards to construction workers discovering the giant bones today. There are stories about how such bones have been interpreted in the past as well as information that has been learned about the lives of the wooly mammoths.
• No reviews available.

Orabone, Laura
2000 Elena and the Coin. Center for Desert Archaeology, Tucson Arizona.

• Early elementary school – 3rd grade and up.
• Fiction - tells the story of a little girl who visits an archaeological site and is transported back into the past by what she finds there. The story revolves around excavations at the Presidio, a military fort built in 1775 to protect settlers from Apache attacks.
• Informative about archaeology and the American southwest of the 18th century.
• Recommended by archaeologist reviewer Kris Hirst.

Panchyk, Richard
2001 Archaeology for Kids: Uncovering the Mysteries of Our Past. Chicago Review Press, Chicago.

• Suitable for 5th grade and up. Text is dense but informative. I’d use it more as a reference than as a curl-up-and-read book. Some activities are suitable for younger kids with teacher or parent help others are more aimed at middle school.
• 25 activities which help illustrate what archaeology is all about and how it is done.
• Discusses: early hominid research, Paleolithic period, Greek and Roman cultures, New World, and Historical archaeology.
• Bibliography and web site references.
• Has a timeline from the end of the dinosaurs through early hominids to Egyptian Mummies.
• Highly recommended – best as a reference.

Pauketat, Timothy and Nancy Bernard Stone
2004 Cahokia Mounds. Oxford University Press.

• Recommended for ages 10 and up.
• Explains what was found at the Cahokia Mounds site, what has been learned about the people who lived there and what may yet be learned.
• Well written and archaeologically accurate.
• Excellent illustrations.
• Highly Recommended

Pickering, Robert B.
1988 I Can be an Archaeologist. Children’s Press, Chicago.

• For beginning readers.
• A short introduction to the activities of archaeologists and physical anthropologists.
• Recommended by the National Park Service Archaeology Program.

Press, Judy
2000 The Kid’s Natural History Book: Making Dinos, Fossils, Mammoths, and More. Williamson Publishers, Virginia.

• Grades 1-4
• Good activity book
• Discusses animals from the past 570 million years with scientific information, fun facts, and related activities. Entertaining
• Scientific terms are well defined.
• Museum websites also included.
• Highly recommended.

Reinhard, Johan
1998 Discovering the Inca Ice Maiden: My Adventures on Ampato National Geographic Society/Simon & Schuster, Inc.

• Age Range: 8 to 12, Grade Range: 3 to 7. School Library Journal Best Books of the Year award winner, 1998.
• In this oversize book with many photographs, the anthropologist who discovered the Inca girl buried in the Andes for over 500 years reconstructs her life & death.
• A first-person account of the 1995 discovery of the over 500-year-old Peruvian ice mummy on Mount Ampato and a description of the subsequent retrieval and scientific study.
• Well-illustrated.

Scarre, Chris and Rebecca Stefoff
2002 The Palace at Minos. Oxford University Press.

• Recommended for ages 10 and older.
• Recounts the story of the discovery and excavations at Minos. Sidebars on archaeological techniques. Shows the use of artifacts and other records to give voices to people of the past. Concludes with an interview of archaeologist Chris Scarre.
• Well written and archaeologically accurat
• Excellent illustrations.
• Recommended by the National Park Service Archaeology Program

Searcy, Margaret Zehmer 1995 Eyr the Hunter – A Story of Ice-Age America. Pelican Publishing Co., Gretna.

Reading level 4th through 8th grade Fiction. This story is told in rhyming couplets just as many ancient storytellers told the epic tales of the past. Eyr's band is hungry and in need of new skins. Eyr dreams of killing the great wooly mammoth with his sharp spear. He imagines how his band would dance and feast, with food to last them through the dark winter. Having reached the age when he can hunt alone, Eyr is sent to scout the large beasts that roam the tundra, especially the wooly mammoths. Armed with only his cape, his knife, his spear, and a smoldering ember, Eyr sets out to become a man and save his band. Recommended by one on-line reviewer.

Scheller, William
1994 Amazing Archaeologists and their Finds. The Oliver Press, Inc., Minneapolis.

• Reading level 6th grade and up. Probably a useful reference book not the best choice for recreational reading.
• Biographical sketches of eight specific archaeologists and their specific famous “finds”. E.g., Henri Mouhot: the Temple of Angkor and Howard Carter: The Tomb of Tutankhamen. All 19th or very early 20th century and all “classical” tombs, temples etc. Middle East, Central America, and one in SE Asia. Only one woman.
• Moderate recommendation as a reference book.

Smith, Stuart Tyson and Nancy Stone Bernard
2003 Valley of the Kings. Oxford University Press.

• Recommended for ages 10 and up.
• Presents a history of excavation in Egypt, an analysis of the findings, and preservation challenges.
• Includes Smith’s discussion of how he became interested in archaeology in 5th grade and his work on popular movies.
• Easy to read and archaeologically accurate.
• Excellent illustrations.
• Highly recommended.

Somozo, Jose Carolos
2003 The Athenian Murders. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

• Recommended for ages 10 or older.
• Fiction. The book is set in ancient Athens and begins with the discovery of the body of young man who was apparently mauled to death by wolves. This is the first mystery the story sets out to solve. The detective in this case is Heracles Pontor, the Decipherer of Enigmas. Another detective is also introduced: footnotes are made at the bottom of the pages by a translator, who tells us that he is translating an ancient Greek text called The Athenian Murders from the original papyrus. The translator immediately points out the literary style in the parchment is that of eidesis ("a literary technique invented by the ancient Greeks to transmit secret messages or keys in their works”) so the mystery is being worked by two detectives one in the story’s present and one unnamed translator.
• I am not an authority but the description of Athenian life is said to be accurate and the story compelling.
• Recommended.

Stuart, Gene S.
1978 Secrets from the Past. National Geographic Society.

• Older readers – 5th grade and up.
• Talks about how archaeologists work and what they can learn by using examples of important sites from around the world – including N. America. Has a very good piece on Cahokia and another on early migrations into North America.
• Discussion focuses more on what we can learn and only a little bit about how archaeology is done.
• Good National Geographic style illustrations – photos and reconstructions.
• Side bars include first person action stories, how to on flint knapping, ancient number systems, calendars, and writing.
• Not a bad book but maybe a little old. Good for browsing or looking up specific questions.
• Moderate to good recommendation.

Swigart, Rob
2007 Stone Mirror: A Novel of the Neolithic. Left Coast Press.

• Excerpt has sophisticated vocabulary. On this basis I’d recommend older readers 9th grade and older, including adult.
• Very new – no independent reviews are currently available.
• The plot description indicates that it includes reconstruction of Neolithic life as well as discussion of how archaeologists work.
• Ethical issues are broached.
• Summary from the website:
  “A large obsidian mirror is found by a Turkish farmer on top of a mound. How did it get there? What does it mean, for then and now? In this captivating novel by writer Rob Swigart, the story toggles back and forth between the story of a Neolithic village-- and the changing fortunes of the family who find this wondrous tool-- and a tale of modern archaeologists whose excavated finds stir journalists, governments, and goddess worshippers alike. The novel provides both a basic reconstruction of Neolithic lifeways and a primer of contemporary archaeological politics and practice. For students in introductory archaeology classes, courses on the Neolithic, ethical issues, or to people interested in the stories archaeologists can tell, Stone Mirror will be a fun, informative introduction both to archaeology and to the people archaeologists study.

Tanaka, Shelly
2000 Secrets of the Mummies: Uncovering the Bodies of Ancient Egyptians. Greg Ruhl (Illustrator). Disney Press.

• Age Range: 9 to 11, Grade Range: 4 to 6.
• Bluegrass Award winner 2001; nominated Garden State Teen Book Award 2002.
• Synopsis: not available

Tanaka, Shelly 2000 The Buried City of Pompeii: What It Was Like When Vesuvius Exploded? Disney Press.
Age Range: 9 to 13, Grade Range: 4 to 8. Information Book Award winner 1998. Synopsis: not available

Tanaka, Shelly
1997 The Bog Man. Laurre McGaw (Photographer). Hyperion Books for Children.

• Age Range: 9 to 11, Grade Range: 4 to 8.
• Mr. Christie's Book Awards winner 1997, Information Book Award winner 1997, nominated for Silver Birch Award 1998.
• Recounts the discovery and examination of a 5,300-year-old man whose remains were found by hikers in the Alps in 1991 and explores how this discovery provides clues about the everyday life of our ancestors.

Tanaka, Shelly
1997 I Was There: The Buried City of Pompeii. Scholastic Canada, Ltd.

• Age Range: 8 to 12, Grade Range: 3 to 7.
• Information Book Award winner 1998.
• Synopsis not available

Vivian, R. Gwinn and Margaret Anderson
2004 Chaco Canyon. Oxford University Press.

• Recommended for ages 10 and up.
• Readers learn about the discovery of Chaco Canyon’s cultural sites and follows generations of archaeologists working there. Reads like a Native American detective story. Includes sidebars on archaeological techniques, timelines, and related sites. Includes and interview with the archaeologist who grew up in the area.
• Great illustrations.
• Highly recommended.

Wilcox, Charlotte
1994 Mummies and Their Mysteries. Lerner Publishing Group.

• Age Range: 9 to 11, Grade Range: 4 to 6.
• Children's Informational Award winner 1996.
• Introduces mummies found in Egypt, Peru, the Far East, and in caves, ice, and bogs.
• Illustrated with riveting color photos. An account of how throughout history many civilizations and religions have attempted to preserve bodies.

Wood, Marion
1990 Ancient America. Checkmark Books, New York.

• Ages 9-12
• A well-illustrated introduction to sites in North and Latin America where ancient people once lived.
• Recommended by National Park Service Archaeology Program

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