1,000 Years Ago on Planet Earth

Collard (Animal Dads) sets the clock back 1000 years as he looks at a dozen civilizations at the turn of the last millennium. One spread is devoted to each of the locales, which include central and southern Europe, where people suffered from a lack of formal education and strong central government; the Middle East and Mediterranean region, where Islamic culture flourished; southern Africa, where the Shona built cities and traded with Arab merchants; and India, which was experiencing cultural prosperity under the Chola Dynasty. While the author offers some intriguing tidbits, the text is often oversimplified or vague (""Printed books enabled the Song to educate large numbers of students to govern China's enormous population""; ""Aborigines believed that the activities of Rainbow Serpents and other Ancestral Beings created the plants, animals, rocks, and places of Australia""). Unfortunately, in Hunt's (Bestiary) double-page ink-and-watercolor art, many of the scenes seem just as generic as the writing, lacking the specificity of a narrative drama that might have given readers a more encompassing visual impression of the epoch and each locale. A good idea, disappointingly executed. Ages 6-10. (Sept.)