Featuring a rich assemblage of patterns and textures and a pleasing palette of earth tones and variegated blues, Balit's (Atlantis: The Legend of a Lost City
) three-quarter spread illustrations dominate this vivid story about the destruction of Pompeii. As the tale opens, a youth named Tranio gazes from his window at Vesuvius, ironically described as Pompeii's "greatest protector... the Gentle Mountain." Through Tranio's eyes, Balit introduces the city's bustling harbor, where merchants and fisherman unload their ships; the forum, where politicians deliver speeches and poets perform; and a theater, where Tranio's father and other masked actors rehearse a pantomime. At this last site, Tranio feels tremors and rushes out into the chaotic street, and sees the air fill with ash. He and his friend Livia climb aboard a Greek cargo ship, where, "in one terrible endless moment, they heard mighty Mount Vesuvius roar. Its top exploded in a scream, and flames ripped upward to the sky." From a safe distance, the two watch molten liquid flow down the mountain into the city and destroy "everything and everyone they had ever loved." A conclusion presents Tranio and Livia many years later as they stand on the once-again fertile mountainside, portrayed in cross-section to show the city, and the people, buried beneath. A dramatic, visually exciting look at a cataclysmic event. Ages 6-9. (Oct.)
