Native Americans (Nature Company Discoveries Libraries)

Offers an overview of the history and culture of the North American Indians, and looks at their interactions with white settlers

Gr 5-8--Like the successful "Eyewitness" books, this series has a large format, captionlike texts, and an extravagant museum of illustrations. Large fold-out pages illustrate big ideas[...] Each book tackles a broad subject, but glossaries, indexes, time lines, and maps help unify the information. Small boxes scattered throughout are obviously meant to capture readers' attention, but they sometimes backfire, as when the facts they provide are too mundane or obscure for the intended audience. [...] Native Americans lumps Indian cultures together and, by doing so, is able to make comparisons of many cultures. It shows, for example, various modes of native transportation, and compares different lifestyles (farming, fishing, foraging, etc.). This approach works well when examining artifacts, but less well as an examination of ongoing, living cultures. Marlene Smith-Baranzini and Howard Egger-Bovet's Book of American Indians (Little, 1994) lacks the vivid full-color illustrations of this book, but gives readers a more complete picture. [...]Attractive but somewhat dry overviews. --Cathryn A. Camper, Minneapolis Public Library
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