Children's History/Reference 9 & up
The World Almanac of the U.S.A. by Allan Carpenter and Carl Provorse
* Buffalo Gals: Women of the Old West by Brandon Marie Miller
Herstory edited by Ruth Ashby and Deborah Gore Ohrn
The Other Victims by Ina R. Friedman
NOTES FROM THE WINDOWSILL ISSN 1078-8697
An electronic journal of book reviews. Copyright 1996 Wendy E. Betts.
Reproduction for personal and non-profit use is permitted only if this
copyright notice is retained. Any other reproduction is prohibited
without permission. Mail web@armory.com with comments or questions.
For info and archives, see http://www.armory.com/~web/notes.html
Vol. 4, No. 6m Children's Nonfiction: History/Reference 6/29/96
__ The World Almanac of the U.S.A._ by Allan Carpenter and Carl
Provorse. World Almanac Books, 1996 (0-88687-791-1) $9.95 pb
A useful compilation of general knowledge about the United States,
this Almanac is divided into three sections: a factual "portrait" of
the U.S., chapters on each state and the District of Columbia, and
statistical comparisons of the states, showing their rankings in such
areas as motor vehicle deaths, SAT and ACT test scores and religious
preferences. In addition to general facts and statistics, each state
chapter includes famous quotes about the state, interesting events in
its history and a list of items that are distinctive and unusual about
it: for example, New York has the world's longest suspension bridge,
the first woman to receive a U.S. patent came from Connecticut, and
Oklahoma is the home of the only county which touches four states.
Not intended specifically for a juvenile audience, this book is
primarily useful as a source of statistical information, but it's also
quite a fun browse. A small section of maps shows the main regions of
the United States and three indexes are included: peoples, places and
topics. (9 & up)
__ Buffalo Gals: Women of the Old West_ by Brandon Marie Miller.
Lerner, 1995 (0-8225-1730-2) $14.21 library binding
This well-written and well-researched book examines the extraordinary
lives of women on the Western frontier. Photographs on almost every
page and frequent quotes from letters and diaries help create a vivid
picture of the hard work, hardships, occasional pleasures and
important accomplishments of the women who made the arduous journey to
the west in the 1800's, as well as the Native American women who first
lived there. Both interesting and highly readable, _Buffalo Gals_ is
entertaining as well as educational. An index and bibliography are
included. * (10 & up)
__ Herstory_ edited by Ruth Ashby and Deborah Gore Ohrn. Viking, 1995
(0-670-85434-4) $19.95
"The ultimate aim of womenUs history is not to exclude half the human
population but to include the half that has been left out." This
ambitious book is a supplement to the traditional histories "of great
men and great wars" which almost completely ignore the achievements of
women. It profiles 120 women--from prehistory to modern times and
from all over the world--who have exerted a great influence on
history, whether as scientists, artists, healers, athletes, warriors
or rulers. Each profile gives a general outline of the subject's life
and achievements, with quotes and portraits included whenever
possible.
Although the profiles are fairly brief, less than two pages each, the
book's format has two advantages: it's a convenient starting point
for students who want to choose one particular woman to study, and it
covers a great many women--a pertinent reminder that histories which
include only one or two women are leaving a great deal out.
_Herstory_ does leave a certain amount out itself, though. Not all
the profiles are completely positive, but a number of controversies
are ignored--and lesbians are as invisible here as women in general are
in standard histories. These are unfortunate flaws in an otherwise
worthwhile book. (10 & up)
__ The Other Victims_ by Ina R. Friedman. Houghton Mifflin, 1990
(0-395-50212-8) $5.95 pb
The Nazi regime is so inextricably linked with the Holocaust, it can
be easy to forget that Jews were not the only victims of Hitler's
reign. This powerful book, without in any way downplaying the
significance of the Holocaust, is a pertinent reminder of the many
others besides Jews who faced torture, death and the attempted
eradication of "their people."
_The Other Victims_ is divided into five sections, tacitly showing the
breadth of the Nazi oppression; among the people who faced persecution
were those deemed "unworthy of life" (gypsies and homosexuals),
religious dissenters, the "racially impure" (blacks and the
handicapped), political dissenter, and those chosen as "slaves for the
Nazi empire." Friedman gives a capsule history of the persecution of
each distinct group, before, during and even after the Nazi era. But
the heart of the book is the personal testimonies of survivors, one
from almost every victimized group. Their poignant stories not only
bear witness to their suffering, but reveal the strength of the human
will to survive and to retain the values of humanity, even in the face
of terrible oppression.
Although Friedman's historical analyses are sometimes simplistic and
the book as a whole could use more documentation, _The Other Victims_
is an important and much needed contribution to young adult books
about Nazi Germany. (12 & up)