This is the third in the I Was There series of richly illustrated historical books. It follows Discovering the Iceman and On Board the Titanic and stakes out a definite niche for author Shelley Tanaka.

Between a factual prologue and epilogue, The Buried City of Pompeii tells a fictionalized tale of what the life and fate of one of the victims may have been like. Part one details his normal life on the day Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D., and part two describes the eruption itself.

Eros was the steward to one of the richest families in Pompeii. His skeleton was found in his room in a villa with the skeleton of a young girl at his feet. Was she his daughter? Why hadn’t they escaped? We will never know the answer to these questions, but Shelley Tanaka presents a plausible scenario. The text is rigorously accurate, which is commendable, but allows little scope for fictionalized drama. What does work well are the factual sidebars,which expand upon a variety of aspects of the text from fish sauce to gladiators.

The book relies heavily on the illustrations, which include photographs of the ruined city, maps of major buildings, schematics of the volcano, and reconstructions of scenes from the story. All are very high quality.

Greg Ruhl is not a stranger to historical reconstruction, having illustrated Westward with Columbus and Little Women. His pictures of everyday life in Pompeii are good, but those of the eruption vividly capture both the sense of panic that must have overwhelmed the unfortunate populace on that August afternoon, and the resignation of Eros as he awaits death.

Ancient disasters hold a fascination for us all, and the destruction of Pompeii is one of the best. The books in this series fall halfway between a full fictionalized account and a straight illustrated history and suffer a little from not achieving either of those goals. However, the subject is dramatic enough and the presentation visual and polished enough that this book will appeal to a broad young readership and will be thumbed through with interest by many parents.