In about A.D. 400, a group of seafarers reached a small, isolated island in Polynesia and founded a new settlement. They developed a rich and complex culture that lasted more than a thousand years. The population eventually declined, and soon all that remained were a few inhabitants and hundreds of mysterious giant stone statues in varying stages of disrepair. Caroline Arnold explains how archeologists and other scientists and scholars have pieced together a history of Easter Island by studying its natural resources, listening to family stories and Polynesian legends, and examining the statues and other clues the people left behind. Photographs, taken by the author, provide a stunning visual accompaniment to this clear and concise account of one of the most remote--and fascinating--places on earth. GLOSSARY, BIBLIOGRAPHY, INDEX.
Caroline Arnold is the author of more than 100 books for children. She writes both fiction and nonfiction and recently has illustrated some of her books with striking cut paper art. To see prints and cards of her illustrations, go to www.etsy.com/shop/CarolineArnoldArt. Recent nonfiction titles include A Polar Bear's World, A Bald Eagle's World, Global Warming and the Dinosaurs, A Panda's World, Giant Sea Reptiles of the Dinosaur Age, Super Swimmers, and Easter Island. Her recent fiction books include Wiggle and Waggle, a collection of five stories for beginning readers, and The Terrible Hodag and the Animal Catchers, a tall tale.
Her books have received awards from the American Library Association, the National Science Teachers Association, P.E.N., and SCBWI. Recently she received the Washington Post/Children's Book Guild Nonfiction Award for her body of work, the Leo Politi Award from California Readers, and from the Children's Literature Council of Southern California, the Best Written and Illustrated Suite of Nonfiction for children.
Caroline's interest in animals and the out-of-doors began when she was a child growing up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After majoring in art and literature at Grinnell College in Iowa, she received her M.A. in art from the University of Iowa. Some of her new books are illustrated with her own art. Caroline lives in Los Angeles and teaches part-time in the Writer's Program at UCLA Extension.
