Bridges and Tunnels Books

I just finished reading this book as part of my preparation for a Middle School unit on Bridge Construction, and I am disappointed. If you are looking for a quick and simple reference book, you may be satisfied; however, I found it thin on text (only 24 pages long, including the index), with only two to five paragraphs of collected information, facts and historical bits on each bridge. The text is dry; thus, I am not convinced it would engage young readers, and it offers very little to help kids conceptually understand the different brdige types it features. This book never does answer the question: "Why are THESE ten bridges America's TOP bridges?"

The full page, color photographs do offer good examples of suspension, trestle, cantilever, pontoon, and stone arch bridges, all from the United States. ...

Pyramid, written by Henrietta McCall, published by Franklin Watts has me baffled. The book is nicely formatted and age appropriate. It focuses on the construction and uses of pyramids. Information is presented two ways. The first is through the main text, which is printed in larger type underneath each chapter heading. The second is through blocks of text which accompany illustrations. These bits of information are printed in smaller type. What baffles me is this statement on page 9 in one of these smaller text blocks, "There were no slaves in Ancient Egypt." This comes with no further explanation. What a bold statement to make without further verification about something that contradicts information in other books written on Ancient Egypt.