A day in the life of a caveman, a queen and everything in between

Gr 2--4--In their follow-up to A Day in the Life of a Poo, a Gnu, and You, cartoonists Barfield and Bradley turn from depicting human biology to covering human history with the same freewheeling spirit--meaning, for example, numerous figures, from Homo erectus to a modern smartphone, personally introducing themselves, and a Bactrian camel offering a tour of the Silk Road. A personified cacao bean provides glimpses of the Maya, and a severed head introduces the French Revolution: "Hello! Welcome to Paris in France in the year 1793." Presented in simply drawn panels and galleries, the hundred or so chronologically ordered entries highlight a broad range of world civilizations and events, as well as monuments, inventions, and art, from cave paintings to Michelangelo's (discreetly shielded) David. Historical figures include Adolf Hitler (who "wanted to make defeated Germany great again"), the Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut, and the courageous Harriet Tubman. The broad scope of the contents is not reflected in their shoehorned arrangement into Eurocentric "Ancient, Middle Ages, and Modern" categories, but the ravages of colonialism and the rise and decline of the slave trade receive somber notice, and a lump of coke and a carbon atom address modern climate issues, too. VERDICT This highlight reel survey may not break any new ground, but it does offer readers in lower elementary grades a broad general picture of our story, from more than a few unusual points of view.--John Edward Peters

Human history is told in a series of bite-size, point-of-view cartoons covering lots of ground. What if the Age of Enlightenment were encapsulated by Isaac Newton's cat, Spithead? What if a Greek vase could talk, providing insight into ancient pottery making? This delightful, informational, and necessarily loopy book tackles history in three parts: "Ancient History," "The Middle Ages," and "The Modern Age." The book goes in strange directions, giving inanimate objects, locations, and animals the same weight as, say, a day in the life of a "movie writer" from 1927 or the queen of England. As with the duo's previous book, A Day in the Life of a Poo, a Gnu and You (2020), pages featuring panels are intercut with "Bigger Picture" spreads, fictional diaries, and "Newsflashes" that detail other events happening around the same time. Those features break up what might otherwise be an exhausting read, not because the energetic, playful writing and versatile drawings aren't entertaining but because there is so much factual material being covered in between Game of Thrones references, talking poop, and on-point critiques of, for instance, Christopher Columbus' inhumane treatment of Indigenous people. The book is worth returning to again and again for new nuggets of knowledge ("Neolithic humans used flint axes and wedges to work me into shape," says a Standing Stone from 2100 B.C.E., "Talk about a 'splitting' headache!"). Characters range in skin tone throughout. A delightful volume that deftly and wittily balances learning with humor and approachable perspective. (glossary, "About Mike and Jess") (Graphic nonfiction. 9-12) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.