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THE HOLOCAUST OVERVIEW

In this introductory volume to the Holocaust Remembered series, Byers presents a comprehensive and dramatic history of the Holocaust aimed at middle-schoolers. Tracing anti-Semitism back to its earliest expression Byers shows how hatred against the Jews, coupled with the rise of National Socialism, provided the force that swept Adolf Hitler to power. She makes clear that, from the very beginning, Hitler methodically conducted a reign of terror against European Jews: boycotts of Jewish businesses, harassment conducted on city streets, the creation of the Nuremburg Laws, and much more. She also outlines the four-part strategy to eliminate the Jews: exclusion, expulsion, enclosure, and ultimately, extermination. Numerous black-and-white period photographs provide evidence of the horrors of WWII. This is a solid introduction to the series, but is also effective as a stand-alone volume, a starting point in the curriculum. (chronology, notes, glossary, further reading, index) (Nonfiction. 10-12)

Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1998

ISBN: 0-7660-1062-7

Page Count: 128

Publisher: Enslow

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1998

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OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES

SAGE OF THE SUPREME COURT

This entry in the Oxford Portraits series is both very good and very useful. White presents a clear biography of the Supreme Court justice who served in the Civil War, studied law, and lived long in the shadow of his famous writer father of the same name. By the time he came to the Supreme Court, he was already 60 years old, but served for three decades more. White creates a vivid portrait of this scholarly and philosophical legal thinker while including rich details of his intellectual but reserved home life and his affectionate flirtations with many women. More than that, readers will absorb a history of the development of legal education, the growth of the Supreme Court, and how law unfolds as a study and a discipline. White is especially felicitous in explaining how the elegance of Holmes’s prose occasionally obscured the legal point he was making. Quotations from Holmes’s writing and picture captions with further details add to the story, and not the least of its accomplishments is to show a man who began the greatest of his career challenges when he was already perceived of as old. Excellent. (chronology, further reading, index) (Biography. 10-12)

Pub Date: Nov. 12, 1999

ISBN: 0-19-511667-4

Page Count: 152

Publisher: Oxford Univ.

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999

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THE STORY OF MARGUERITE HENRY

Marguerite Henry died barely two years ago, after living the life of which most writers dream: She wrote from the time she was young, her parents encouraged her, she published early and often, and her books were honored and loved in her lifetime. Her hobby, she said, was words, but it was also her life and livelihood. Her research skills were honed by working in her local library, doing book repair. Her husband Sidney supported and encouraged her work, and they traveled widely as she carefully researched the horses on Chincoteague and the burros in the Grand Canyon. She worked in great harmony with her usual illustrator, Wesley Dennis, and was writing up until she died. Collins is a bit overwrought in his prose, but Henry comes across as strong and engaging as she must have been in person. Researchers will be delighted to find her Newbery acceptance speech included in its entirety. (b&w photos, bibliography, index) (Biography. 9-12)

Pub Date: March 10, 1999

ISBN: 1-883846-39-0

Page Count: 112

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1999

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