Atlas of a Lost World: Travels in Ice Age America by Craig Childs

In this engaging combination of armchair travel and popular science, author Childs gives readers a glimpse into the Americas during the last Ice Age, from about 30,000 to 11,000 years ago. In his travels across the Americas, especially Alaska, to explore key archeological sites, he travels alone or with assorted companions, including his mother, archeology students and their professor, and his two children. He kayaks in the north Florida swamps, camps overnight in below zero temps and on the way to Burning Man in the Black Rock Desert, finds mammoth footprints in the American West, and meets with scientists and Native scholars.

A number of questions are considered, not all of them answered. When and how did people arrive in the Americas? Did they walk across the Bering land bridge, and/or journey in skin boats along the coast? Did some people come from Iberia, now Portugal and Spain? What large animals did they encounter, and what did they eat? How did they travel during expanding and receding glaciers, and during sea rise? Tools and weapons were made from materials that were routinely carried for hundreds of miles, which indicated travel and trade. Mammoths and mastodons were common, then rare, and finally extinct as the climate changed. What was the significance of a mammoth hunt during different eras? Childs visits deserts, cliffs, caves, rivers, and coasts, describing how they look now, and what they probably looked like 11,000 to 25,000 years ago to early human travelers. Lots of research, amazing travels, and compelling writing make for a very appealing read. The illustrations by Sarah Gilman enhance the reading experience.

Readalikes include The Sun is a Compass by Caroline Van Hemert, Hudson Bay Bound by Natalie Warren, The High Sierra by Kim Stanley Robinson, and The River: A novel by Peter Heller.

Brenda