Gr 4-6-These titles are inviting, with good margins and a comfortable font for the texts. Unfortunately, they suffer from sloppy editing and sweeping statements that have little or no factual support in the texts. Pearl Harbor has a good introduction, but deteriorates quickly thereafter. Statements such as "During the first thirty years of the twentieth century relations between the United States and the Empire of Japan were often very unfriendly" will make readers wonder what happened to the other 10 years, since this would have been 1940-41. The author states that Japanese leaders knew they could not win an extended war. This was Yamamoto's opinion, and not that of the Japanese warlords. Most of the pictures are vintage photos that can be found in other books on the topic. Stay with the standard Pearl Harbor titles. In Daniel Boone, the author states that, "He [Boone] and other hunters used the same land that Native Americans had come to think of as their hunting grounds." Indeed, they were the first inhabitants. One caption describes U.S. troops as fighting the Shawnee, but there were no U.S. troops in the 1750s. Reproductions of paintings and lithographs from various archives and collections appear on almost every page. Jim Hargrove's Daniel Boone: Pioneer Trailblazer (Children's, 1985; o.p.) is a better choice. It has a slightly higher reading level, many of the same illustrations in black and white, and is more comprehensive. Neither of these new series entries has a bibliography.-Eldon Younce, Harper Elementary School, KS Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
