Stone Age Farmers Beside the Sea: Scotland's Prehistoric Village of Skara Brae - Hardcover

Arnold, Caroline

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0395776015 ISBN 13: 9780395776018

Publisher: Clarion Books, 1997

Synopsis

A clear and informative text and revealing photographs offer readers a complete picture of life in the prehistoric Scottish Village of Skara Brae, where the community farmed, herded, hunted, and fished from 3100 B.C. to 2500 B.C.

About this title

About the Author

Caroline Arnold always loved books, but as a child she never thought of writing as a career. Born in Pittsburgh, she grew up in Minneapolis and studied art at Grinnell College and the University of Iowa. "It was only after my children were born that I became acquainted with children's books and it occurred to me that I could use my training to become a children's book illustrator. I soon realized that I needed a text to go with the pictures, and the more I wrote, the more I realized that I liked writing as much as or more than drawing. I've always been fascinated by the natural world and love to go to the parks and museums. Perhaps that is why so many of my books are about scientific topics." Arnold is now the award-winning author of more than 100 books for children. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, a neuroscientist, and teaches writing at UCLA Extension. For more information visit www.carolinearnoldbooks.com.

Reviews

Grade 5-8. One of the earliest prehistoric European sites found, Skara Brae is located on the coast of one of Scotland's Orkney Islands. It was inhabited from 3100 to 2500 B.C., then abandoned; the settlement lay buried for centuries until it was uncovered by a storm in 1850. In an accessible and interesting manner, Arnold describes the finding of the village, as well as what its excavation has shown about daily life in the Stone Age. She also discusses nearby tombs and stone circles. The book's format is straightforward with abundant and appealing full-color photographs (the Arnolds seem to have happened upon a rare period of sunny weather). Olivier Dunrea's Skara Brae (Holiday, 1986) is illustrated with clear drawings, but is fictionalized and is for slightly younger children.?Pam Gosner, formerly at Maplewood Memorial Library, NJ
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A fascinating look at ``one of Europe's oldest known and best preserved prehistoric villages,'' inhabited from 3100 to 2500 b.c., in northern Scotland's Orkney Islands. Arnold (Stories in Stone, 1996, etc.) relates how the city, predating the Egyptian pyramids, was buried by sand and rediscovered following a storm 150 years ago. This ancient settlement provides a slice of human history when people made tools with stone or bone and began to live in settled communities.'' Accompanied by the clear, informative, full-color photos, Arnold's narrative deftly recounts the design of the stone houses, how they were built, the daily life of the farming inhabitants, how this prehistoric period of Orkney history ends, and why Skara Brae remains of lasting significance. Readers will be impressed by the details of the painstaking work of archeologists to uncover and preserve this ancient site. (maps, diagrams, glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 8-11) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Gr. 4^-7. This handsome book introduces the ancient village of Skara Brae on Scotland's Orkney Islands. Inhabited from 3100 to 2500 B.C., Skara Brae lay buried by shifting sands until uncovered by a storm in 1850. Today the site includes the stone walls of several small, interconnected houses buttressed by mounds of midden (trash mixed with soil and plant matter) that are overgrown with grass. As Arnold describes the ruins and the neolithic culture they suggest, she carefully distinguishes between what is known and what is surmised about the people who lived at Skara Brae. Brightening nearly every page, full-color photographs show details of Skara Brae as well as its idyllic surroundings and other nearby neolithic sites such as a burial mound, a cooking rough, and two Orkney monuments of giant standing stones. The photos' clear images, subtle colors, and pleasing compositions give the book its pervasive sense of beauty. A well-crafted presentation. Ilene Cooper

Edition details

• Publisher: Clarion Books
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0395776015
• ISBN 13: 9780395776018
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Arnold Arthur P.
• Number of pages: 48