Africa: An Encyclopedia for Students

Published by Charles Scribner's Sons

Booklist/Reference Books Bulletin 20 Best Bets for Student Researchers 2002

Based on the scholarship in the acclaimed academic Encyclopedia of Africa, which is aimed at college and graduate students, this work presents Africa, from Egypt to Cape Town and from prehistoric times to the present day, in a format that is inviting to high school students. The 4-vol. set spans many disciplines with its articles on animals, foods, holidays and festivals, tribal groups, ecology, music and art, trade and the economy, geography, religion, folklore, and fossil and skeletal discoveries.

Review:

"Based on the 1997 Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara and overseen by the editor of that publication, John Middleton, this well-illustrated, readable, and clearly organized encyclopedia "covers the same ground as the earlier work at a level suitable for middle and high school students." Eight years in production, its alphabetic articles offer sidebars with definitions of terms and short in-depth explorations of specific aspects of the main subject. Although the articles are not signed (posing a problem for librarians wishing to evaluate their quality), many of them are based on original pieces from the previous set, with updates and changes, and a substantial amount of new information in the section on North Africa is included. ... This work will be most useful for well-funded large public library reference collections, high school libraries, and academic libraries with a strong teacher training component to their curriculum."
-- ARBA (2002)

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