A disarmingly candid and historically helpful summary of many ways the death is managed and understood is best explained by indicating its contents. The chapter headings are: Dead Is Dead (defining death); Death Is Destiny (understanding death); What Happens to Corpses (decomposition, transplants, autopsies, and embalming); Bones and Ashes (cremation and other ways to dispose of corpses); How to Contain the Remains (urns, coffins, crypts, and mausoleums); Where Corpses End Up (cemeteries and other burial sites); Rituals for People Who Have Died (burial customs, ceremonies, and celebrations); and Death Is Everywhere (images in the arts and everyday life). Endnotes include the locations of remains and burial sites of some famous people, a collection of Apoignant, pious, patriotic, historic, and humorous" epitaphs, images of common carvings on gravestones, a chronology, a glossary, a bibliography and an index. Colman effectively intersperses facts with personal experience and interesting other examples without trying to be clever or becoming morbid. (Ages 7-14)

Drawing on extensive historical and anthropological research, personal accounts, and interviews with people who work in the funeral industry, Penny Colman examines the compelling subjects of death and burial across cultures and societies. The text, enriched with stories both humorous and poignant, includes details about the decomposition and embalming processes (an adult corpse buried six feet deep without a coffin will usually take five to ten years to turn into a skeleton) and describes the various customs associated with containing remains (the Igala people in Nigeria have a custom of burying people in as many as twenty-seven layers of clothing). Intriguing facts are revealed at every turn; for example, in Madagascar winter was considered the corpse-turning season.

This comprehensive book also includes a list of burial sites of famous people, images in the arts associated with death, fascinating epitaphs and gravestone carvings, a chronology and a glossary, and over a hundred black-and-white photographs, most of which were taken by the author.

Penny Colman writes with compassion and intelligence and humanizes the difficult subjects of death and burial. The result is a powerful look at an inevitable part of life--death.