On This Spot: An Expedition Back Through Time by Susan E. Goodman (illustrated by Lee Christiansen; Greenwillow Books, 2004) is a nonfiction picture book showing glimpses of a place on earth over the course of billions of years. It begins with a street scene of New York City and then jumps back 175 years, 350 years, 400 years ago, and 15,000 years ago, with subsequent pages reaching even farther back in time millions and billions of years to show the early points in earth’s evolutionary history.
The images are lovely illustrations and I was excited on the premise of glimpsing one place through history. I was disappointed to see that the majority of the pages were prehistoric history. with my interest in history, I had hoped it would focus on the eras of history in which people lived there. That said, this was a book about the evolution and changing face of the world, albeit backwards (from present to past). It was a nice book for what it’s purpose was. It just wasn’t what I was looking for for a history book.
