bookshelf

VIETNAM WAR SOLDIERS

Name: VIETNAM WAR SOLDIERS
Author: Neil Super
ISBN: 0-8050-2307-0

by Neil Super ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1993

bookshelf

African-Americans have fought in all this country's wars, and have always had to battle racism as well as the enemy; Super shows how Vietnam was a particularly bitter experience for them—made physically more dangerous by ingrained prejudice in the military, and rendered more of an inner trial by its aftermath and by the rising expectations fostered by the civil-rights movement. Despite a large cast of named participants, plus telling statistics and examples of discrimination and of heroism under fire, the book is more analytical than anecdotal, emphasizing the fact of racism over its specific manifestations. Super closes by pointing out that black veterans still suffer much higher rates of homelessness and unemployment than their white counterparts, and share a general sense that even now their contributions to the war are only beginning to be appreciated. Most useful as a source for middle- grade reports. Small selection of dark b&w photos; perfunctory bibliography; index. Another new entry in the African American Soldiers series, Kathryn Browne Pfeifer's Henry O. Flipper (ISBN: 0-8050-2351-8) covers the unhappy career of West Point's first black graduate. (Nonfiction. 10-12)

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1993

ISBN: 0-8050-2307-0

Page Count: 80

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1993

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HISTORY

bookshelf

THE CENTURY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

by Peter Jennings & Todd Brewster ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1999

bookshelf

Just in time for the millennium comes this adaptation of Jennings and Brewster’s The Century (1998). Still a browsable, coffee-table edition, the book divides the last 100 years more or less by decade, with such chapter headings as “Shell Shock,” “Global Nightmare,” and “Machine Dreams.” A sweeping array of predominantly black-and-white photographs documents the story in pictures—from Theodore Roosevelt to O.J., the Panama Canal to the crumbling Berlin Wall, the dawn of radio to the rise of Microsoft—along with plenty of captions and brief capsules of historical events. Setting this volume apart, and making it more than just a glossy textbook overview of mega-events, are blue sidebars that chronicle the thoughts, actions, and attitudes of ordinary men, women, and children whose names did not appear in the news. These feature-news style interviews feature Milt Hinton on the Great Migration, Betty Broyles on a first automobile ride, Sharpe James on the effect of Jackie Robinson’s success on his life, Clara Hancox on growing up in the Depression, Marnie Mueller on life as an early Peace Corps volunteer, and more. The authors define the American century by “the inevitability of change,” a theme reflected in the selection of photographs and interviews throughout wartime and peacetime, at home and abroad. While global events are included only in terms of their impact on Americans, this portfolio of the century is right for leafing through or for total immersion. (index) (Nonfiction. 9-12)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-385-32708-0

Page Count: 245

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HISTORY

bookshelf

CIVIL WAR ARTIST

by Taylor Morrison ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1999

bookshelf

It took four weeks for illustrations of scenes from the US’s Civil War battles to make it from the front lines to readers’ hands; Morrison (Cheetah, 1998, etc.) explains that process in his uniquely handsome book. Morrison introduces the fictional artist, William Forbes, commissioned by the fictional Burton’s Illustrated News to follow the Union Army into battle at Bull Run. Throughout the day’s fighting Forbes makes quick sketches; it is risky business, and he is often in mortal peril. That night he makes a more complete drawing, which is handed to a courier and taken back to the Burton offices. There, engravers set to work translating Forbes’s drawing to a grid of wood blocks (Morrison includes interesting incidentals along the way, giving the process its due). The images are converted to electrotype, whereafter it is finally ready for the operators and pressman. Shortly after that, the newsboys are seen hawking the illustrated weekly, containing Forbes’s image a mere month after the actual event. Morrison successfully renders the complexities of illustrating newspapers 150 years ago, and just as successfully conveys that in abandoning the wood block for the photograph, some of the art was sacrificed for speed. (glossary) (Picture book. 6-10)