Given the paucity of books on the law for young readers, this fills a niche, but here’s hoping a more engaging and vibrant...
Case studies form the nucleus of this introduction to the ever changing nature of crime and punishment in the United States.
This slim volume seeks to introduce young readers to the various complexities of crime and punishment. An important aspect of these ideas is how society’s views have changed over the years. By following the law school model and exploring actual cases, readers are able to ponder abstract ideas via concrete examples. One of the first cases involves a 12-year-old who knowingly purchased a valuable baseball card at much less than its market value. Was this theft or merely taking advantage of a clerk’s error? Many of the examples are more consequential and show the far-reaching nature of criminal law. There are cases involving race, mental competence, the banking system, terrorism and more. This wide range is both a strength and weakness: Readers can get a sense of the law’s pervasiveness, but it also means that each subject receives limited coverage. The author is clear that this book is designed to raise questions and encourage readers to delve further. The format does not add much to aid in engagement: Occasional photographs and sidebars do little to relieve the text. There is a helpful glossary, suggestions for further reading, source notes and a comprehensive bibliography.
Given the paucity of books on the law for young readers, this fills a niche, but here’s hoping a more engaging and vibrant replacement comes along soon. (photo credits, index not seen) (Nonfiction. 10-16)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-14896-3
Page Count: 144
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2014
A refreshed version of a classic that doesn’t hold up to more recent works.
A new edition of late author Zinn’s 2007 work, which was adapted for young readers by Stefoff and based on Zinn’s groundbreaking 1980 original for adults.
This updated version, also adapted by Stefoff, a writer for children and teens, contains new material by journalist Morales. The work opens with the arrival of Christopher Columbus and concludes with a chapter by Morales on social and political issues from 2006 through the election of President Joe Biden seen through the lens of Latinx identity. Zinn’s work famously takes a radically different perspective from that of most mainstream history books, viewing conflicts as driven by rich people taking advantage of poorer ones. Zinn professed his own point of view as being “critical of war, racism, and economic injustice,” an approach that felt fresh among popular works of the time. Unfortunately, despite upgrades that include Morales’ perspective, “a couple of insights into Native American history,” and “a look at the Asian American activism that flourished alongside other social movements in the 1960s and 1970s,” the book feels dated. It entirely lacks footnotes, endnotes, or references, so readers cannot verify facts or further investigate material, and the black-and-white images lack credits. Although the work seeks to be inclusive, readers may wonder about the omission of many subjects relating to race, gender, and sexuality, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act, Indian boarding schools, the Tulsa Race Massacre, Loving v. Virginia, the Stonewall Uprising, Roe v. Wade, Title IX, the AIDS crisis, and the struggle for marriage equality.
A refreshed version of a classic that doesn’t hold up to more recent works. (glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 10-16)Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2023
ISBN: 9781644212516
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Triangle Square Books for Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An important story drowned in illegibility and exposition.
A biography, in comic form, of a survivor of Josef Mengele’s horrific experiments on twins.
Eva and Miriam Mozes are twins, born in 1934 to the only Jewish family in their Romanian village. Though Papa, fearing the antisemitism of interwar Romania, wants the family to flee to safety in Palestine, Mama argues against it. And so it is that they are still in Romania when their home is invaded by Hitler’s ally, Hungary. Following an all-too-familiar story, the Mozes family is sent first to the ghetto and then on to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Torn away from their family, the girls are brought to Mengele for his nightmarish twin experiments. The graphic form mercifully makes it difficult to provide much detail of the stomach-churning tortures Mengele inflicted on those he found lesser, though the blocky illustrations certainly feature starvation, death, and disease. After the girls are liberated by the Soviets, they begin the second part of their ordeal: living with their trauma. Two extremely dense chapters detail the next 74 years, eventually building to the journey Eva would take late in her life toward liberating herself by forgiving the Nazis. This overstuffed survivor tale owes less to Maus than it does to the For Beginners series of graphic nonfiction. Dense blocks of historical play-by-play, ungainly prose, and hard-to-read lettering make this a slog.
An important story drowned in illegibility and exposition. (Graphic biography. 13-15)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-68435-178-7
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Red Lightning Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2021
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