Discovering the Iceman tells eight-to 12-year-olds about the 1991 discovery, identification, and subsequent study of a glacier-preserved, late Stone Age man and his belongings. It’s a book that, though carefully and attractively designed, scores low on the “pretty” scale. Photographs of a 5,300-year-old corpse, regardless of how amazingly well preserved it is, just aren’t easy on the eye.

The effective presentation to young readers of images as graphic as the Iceman’s depends on some finely tuned checks and balances. The good news is that a sensitive and capable author-illustrator team is behind Discovering the Iceman. Award-winning author and editor Shelley Tanaka deftly alternates fact and fiction in her three-part account of the Iceman, his world, and his role today. Laurie McGaw’s illustrations, reminiscent of traditional picture Bible art, temper the impact of the stark Iceman photos. Together, the fiction and art succeed in supplying the equivalent of a second, more reader-friendly Iceman portrait.

Discovering the Iceman is very much a visual experience. Rife with photographs and illustrations, it also offers diagrams, maps, and area-based timelines to pore over. Alpine end papers are an appropriate and attractive touch as is the leather or fur strip motif used as a recurring page accent. A two-column text layout issues a friendly welcome to readers. Type size, spacing, and background colour helpfully differentiate primary and supplementary texts.

While Discovering the Iceman has much to recommend it, it’s not without flaws or curious oversights. The insets component of the “What is a Glacier?” feature lacks clarity, as does the photograph of an ancient birch bark fungus cure. (There is a much better photo in Konrad Spindler’s The Man in the Ice.) No credentials are provided for two of the three historical consultants cited on the title page. The issue of Iceman ownership is raised but not dealt with in any conclusive way. At least one of the three books recommended for further reading is well beyond the capability of most of this book’s audience and is not noted accordingly.

Discovering the Iceman will not be everyone’s cup of tea. However, it will appeal to several distinct audiences. Young people drawn to the macabre will be interested briefly in the visuals. Budding historians will be intrigued by the discovery, all that followed, and all there is still to unfold. Parents and teachers may wish to challenge their children and classes to discussion and debate about the ethics of the early media reaction to and ongoing research “handling” of the Iceman.