Timeline: a visual history of our world

See sample pages from this book at Wink.

I love the tidbits of history, the unique visual style, the subtle humor, and the breadth of coverage in Timeline: A Visual History of Our World. On each 10x29-inch page spread are whimsical curved text blocks filled with simply written yet intriguing historical facts. And each spread addresses one era of time. The book, which targets children 7 to 12-years old, starts with The Beginning of Life and includes a miniature image-based timeline of stromatolites, trilobites, ammonites and more. The author offers spreads dedicated to the major geological periods, as well as more brief and recent timespans. Our current decade is the last timeline covered, concluding with As time goes by. . . along with a person spreading black paint across the page.

The illustrations are fabulous. Goes uses a minimalist color palette that differs for each of his timelines. The Dinosaurs are on a wheat-toned page with black silhouettes accented by red and gold. The Ming Dynasty appears on a dusty rose background with dark pink and white accents, again using black as the major illustrative color. Goes' technique of black with two accent colors artfully draws the eye to visual vignettes on the page, while the curving text leads you to the next image. Wonderful. Engaging. Amusing.

This book makes for great conversational fodder. Did you know that, according to the page spread on 18th Century in Europe, Mont Blanc was called Mon Maudit, or cursed mountain, until the Enlightenment, when people stopped believing in curses? The 1960s spread covers the social protest movements of the decade, referring to incidents from around the globe. One of the most interesting spreads to me was Explorers from All Periods, mostly because I love learning about specific people. China had an ambassador, Zhang Qian, in the 2nd Century BC who knew that there were ambassadors that long ago? I am not a history buff, yet I continually enjoy perusing Timeline: A Visual History of Our World. Lora Poser-Brown