YOUNG GERMANY: Children of Germany at Work and at Play

More than others in this series, this is an informal photo album with captions rather than a survey incorporating photographs. Not only do the pictures dominate the text, they also tend toward the atmospheric and appealing rather than the specifically illustrative; the photographer seems to have looked for good shots, the author seems to have looked for something to say about them. Thus there are many scenes of children helping on farms or with a milk route, practicing gymnastics or playing at one thing or another (including four of youngsters with not uncommon pets); there is also the intimation that everyone dresses in traditional costumes on festival days. The section on schooling is brief, outlining the institutional structure in East and West Germany (without noting that the latter is inherently undemocratic). However, the author does try elsewhere to balance benefits on both sides of the Iron Curtain. It comes out a pleasant, innocuous jaunt, largely by-passing cities (except bomb-scarred Dresden and bifurcated Berlin) and of little use for information.