Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 12/15/2016 This offering presents insights into the lives of children from five different periods in world history, striving to make anthropology and archaeology relevant for modern-day kids. Chapters are organized chronologically and by location: from prehistoric times through the 1700s, they explore what daily life might have been like, as well as some of the scientific processes that help people today understand more about the past. The “cavemen” of western Europe in 18,000 BCE, for example, didn’t really live in caves, but they did create paintings on cave walls; children likely playfully explored them as well, as residual footprints and radiocarbon dating have shown. Fort Mose in 1700s Florida, meanwhile, was a safe haven for escaped enslaved people. Basic science blends well with the book’s casual tone; the clean, blocky layout is bolstered by a wide variety of photographs, primarily of artifacts from the different periods, and secondary sources are appended. An intriguing, empathetic introduction to life in the past. - Copyright 2016 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 01/01/2017 Gr 5–8—In this original take on archaeology, Huey visits five sites, from prehistory to Colonial America, that show extensive evidence about the children who lived there. Huey explains that kids have always played and learned to become members of their societies, just as they do today. The sites reveal how children painted caves in prehistoric Europe, sat in toolmaking "classes" in Stone Age Europe, made and decorated pottery in pre-Columbian North America, and played and worked in Colonial Jamestown and Fort Mose, FL, which was a unique community of formerly enslaved people who escaped from the British colonies. Each chapter opens with a child in a hypothetical situation based upon the site history and then discusses the featured society and its history, describing what recent archaeological scholarship has illuminated about the society and its children. Huey also examines current archaeological tools and techniques. Attractive color photos of the \ locations and artifacts enhance the text. With the exception of the frequently overlooked Fort Mose, most of the sites have been covered in general surveys, such as Richard Panchyk's widely held Archaeology for Kids: Uncovering the Mysteries of Our Past, 25 Activities, or in history texts. However, this book is certain to capture and hold readers' attention and help them understand that kids' history is human history. VERDICT A fine purchase for history and archaeology collections.—Mary Mueller, Rolla Public Schools, MO - Copyright 2017 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.