A Beginner’s Guide to Immortality: From Alchemy to Avatars

For readers with dreams of evading death, Birmingham offers five possible tactics that would-be immortals have used from prehistory to the present (not that any of them have been successful, exactly). From the search for miracle elixirs to examples of long-lived human and animals, Birmingham offers a wide-ranging look at the myths (vampires, the isle of Tír na nÓg), scientific efforts (cryogenics, the uploading of human brains to robot bodies), and religious traditions surrounding the extension of life, as well as what might await in the afterlife. Holinaty’s cartoon vignettes dot the pages of each color-coded chapter, their playfulness helping underscore the fact that, no matter how much lycopene you ingest or what bargains you make with Zeus, immortality is, for now, still out of reach. Ages 8–12. (Oct.)