(Niki Horin, Five Mile Press, $34.95 hb, ISBN 9781741785296, November) ****

A large, lavish pop-up book about ancient Egypt: what sets this apart from other similar productions? This book first and foremost tells a story, one of grinding years of effort followed by accelerated days of wild anticipation before the discovery of this richest of treasure troves. The young Howard Carter (only 17 when he went to Egypt) persevered for years in his search for Tutankhamun’s remains. Horin describes him as ‘a passionate man of stubborn will.’ Bankrolled by Lord Carnarvon and captured in evocative photos, many of which appear in this book, the quest unfolds in a narrative that continues to take the breath away more than 80 years later. All the tricks of paper engineering are here: a 3-D plan of the tomb and contents, miniature books such as the ‘archaeologist’s dictionary’, reproductions of Carter’s own maps and sketches, and a splendid pop-up of the boy king’s golden death-mask, recognised everywhere as a symbol of the 3000-year-old kingdom. These effects interest and inform readers about life and beliefs in the kingdom, and about the practices of archaeology. The book’s special achievement is to entice the reader along the story path, so that learning is incidental and effortless. Adult readers are left pondering colonial arrogance, an unspoken subtext to this exciting tale. (see author interview p.53)

In her bookselling days, Robin Morrow found she could liven up a slow day’s trade by putting books about ancient Egypt in the shop window

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2007, Thorpe-Bowker