A bit dry but provides a foundation for further learning.
A graphic history of early-20th-century China told through black-and-white illustrations.
Beginning with the 1911 revolution and the fall of the Qing dynasty, this fifth volume in the Understanding China Through Comics series moves through the rise of Sun Yatsen to the early years of Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong, then on to the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II, before concluding as Mao finally establishes the People’s Republic of China in 1949. While the complexities of these historical events are not fully explored in this overview, a good deal of factual information is presented, and the broad scope of the material covered is apparent. The interplay between Chinese and global history is also clear and addressed well. Particularly visually striking are the charts illustrating troop losses in battle and economic disparities between different groups. Other information is conveyed largely through narration or characters monologuing about their actions and motivations, content that lacks emotional depth. This, however, is somewhat made up for by full-page, sometimes surreal illustrations of major events, such as the Battle of Hengyang, Operation Ichigo, and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which provide arresting interludes in this accounting of history that is otherwise focused on timelines and statistics.
A bit dry but provides a foundation for further learning. (timeline, notes, suggested reading) (Graphic nonfiction. 11-14)Pub Date: March 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-61172-070-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Stone Bridge Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
If Freedman wrote the history textbooks, we would have many more historians. Beginning with an engrossing description of the Boston Tea Party in 1773, he brings the reader the lives of the American colonists and the events leading up to the break with England. The narrative approach to history reads like a good story, yet Freedman tucks in the data that give depth to it. The inclusion of all the people who lived during those times and the roles they played, whether small or large are acknowledged with dignity. The story moves backwards from the Boston Tea Party to the beginning of the European settlement of what they called the New World, and then proceeds chronologically to the signing of the Declaration. “Your Rights and Mine” traces the influence of the document from its inception to the present ending with Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. The full text of the Declaration and a reproduction of the original are included. A chronology of events and an index are helpful to the young researcher. Another interesting feature is “Visiting the Declaration of Independence.” It contains a short review of what happened to the document in the years after it was written, a useful Web site, and a description of how it is displayed and protected today at the National Archives building in Washington, D.C. Illustrations from the period add interest and detail. An excellent addition to the American history collection and an engrossing read. (Nonfiction. 9-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-8234-1448-5
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2000
Logically pointing out that the American cowboy archetype didn’t spring up from nowhere, Sandler, author of Cowboys (1994) and other volumes in the superficial, if luxuriously illustrated, “Library of Congress Book” series, looks back over 400 years of cattle tending in North America. His coverage ranges from the livestock carried on Columbus’s second voyage to today’s herding-by-helicopter operations. Here, too, the generous array of dramatic early prints, paintings, and photos are more likely to capture readers’ imaginations than the generality-ridden text. But among his vague comments about the characters, values, and culture passed by Mexican vaqueros to later arrivals from the Eastern US, Sadler intersperses nods to the gauchos, llaneros, and other South American “cowmen,” plus the paniolos of Hawaii, and the renowned African-American cowboys. He also decries the role film and popular literature have played in suppressing the vaqueros’ place in the history of the American West. He tackles an uncommon topic, and will broaden the historical perspective of many young cowboy fans, but his glance at modern vaqueros seems to stop at this country’s borders. Young readers will get a far more detailed, vivid picture of vaquero life and work from the cowboy classics in his annotated bibliography. (Notes, glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2001
ISBN: 0-8050-6019-7
Page Count: 116
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2000
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