This is a fascinating look at what happened to the town of Pompeii on one fateful day in August, 79 AD when the sleeping volcano looming over the ancient city awoke.

I'm obsessed with Pompeii, and this book was outstanding! Amazing pictures, chilling stories, This book was so fascinating!!! I want to visit Pompeii someday!

When I was a student I loved learning about Pompeii and I think that my future students will be intrigued by the information in this book as well.It has lots of interesting facts about the people, the culture, and the destruction. I loved learning about how people lived back then and how scientists can determine all their information based on what was left behind. I love the real pictures. I think that kids will thoroughly enjoy this book! It will definitely be on my future shelf! I would use this book when talking about culture.

My kids picked this one out from a library shelf because about half a year ago we talked briefly about Pompeii and I showed them pictures online of the ruins. I'm shocked they're not freaked out by this but they seem to love this book, especially right before bed time (search me!!) (??). I love it too, I guess it's a kind of morbid curiosity for me but I love the educational element of it. Great info, great pictures, great book.

This was informative, interesting, and a quick read. It contained information I haven't found in other books on the same topic.

Fascinating. I've always been intrigued by the story of Pompeii, and here is a book able to piece together all the events of its last 24 hours by taking molds from the empty pockets of earth where bodies used to lie. Incredible detail in the recovered body molds, puts you right there to sympathize. Not for all children, though.

Great book for a 5th great project. Lots of interesting facts about the different excavations along with pictures of the sites and remains.

"In ancient times, Pompeii was one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire. Its 20,000 inhabitants lived in the shadow of Vesuvius, which they believed was nothing more than a mountain. But Vesuvius was a volcano. And on the morning of August 24, A.D. 79, Vesuvius began to erupt. Within twenty-four hours, the entire city of Pompeii--and many of its citizens--had been utterly annihilated.
It was not until hundreds of years later that Pompeii saw daylight again, as archaeological excavations began to unearth what had been buried under layers of volcanic rubble. Digging crews expected to find buildings and jewelry and other treasures, but they found something unexpected, too: the imprints of lost Pompeiians, their deaths captured as if by photographic images in volcanic ash"

Great pictures! The author was born in Utica, where I work.

Informational book about Pompeii, good for older students (5th grade). Many black and white photos that are a bit scary at times. Lots of information about the history and science of the volcanic explosion at Pompeii. Would be a nice text to have available for a report.

Amazing photography of the remains of the people of Pompeii. I couldn't put it down! Lots of great information on what actually happened those two days.

Pompeii, one of the world's most infamous disaster stories, always fascinates. This wonderfully written, high-interest nonfiction exploration of the cataclysmic events during the eruption of Vesuvius in August AD 79, the rediscovery of the city and its inhabitants' bodies hundreds of years later, and the archeological and scientific methods used to understand the discoveries, including using plaster to fill in the imprints of bodies captured in volcanic ash, is a great choice for readers ages 10 and up. Stunning photos and details throughout the book are compulsively intriguing, leading readers to both better understand the human tragedy at the heart of the loss of the entire city and so many of its inhabitants as well as marvel at the ingenuity of scientists and historians piecing together the events of that fateful 24 hours so long ago.

Amazing and unexpected pictures.