Gr 6-8--Full-color photographs and illustrations and detailed sketches grace every page.... Particularly striking are the full-page cutaways of buildings. ... The accompanying text is sometimes a bit technical, and some Latin terms are not fully explained. A careful introduction illuminates not only the eruption, but also the early history of the city and the surrounding area. This is as complete and thorough a documentation of the story of Pompeii as any that can currently be found in children's collections.

... Introducing the subject with brief accounts of Vesuvius’s eruption in A.D. 79 and the excavation of the remains, Connolly describes Pompeii’s public sites (forum, theater, baths)... [which] are meticulously presented and illustrated with photos as well as with attractive, precise, clearly captioned art. ...the range and wealth of information here offer an insight into the potentials of scholarship that is rare in books for young people. Index. (Nonfiction. 10+)