Ancient Empires & Mighty People

School Library Journal

Gr 4-6-These books cover broad areas of Hispanic cultural influence-the ancient civilizations of South and Central America, and civil-rights issues in 20th-century North America. Both titles have wide margins and plentiful black-and-white and full-color photographs and reproductions. Unfortunately, both are flawed by poor composition and style. Sentences such as, ``Or maybe rulers were demanding too much taxes and so the people rebelled by not working,'' (Ancient Empires) are woefully frequent. Despite its crafts slant, Ruth Thomson's Aztecs (Watts, 1993) gives information on an ancient American civilization in a coherent form, and Maria Cedeno's Cesar Chavez (Millbrook, 1993) provides a more comprehensive and focused view of the Hispanic civil-rights movement.-Ann Welton, Terminal Park Elementary School, Auburn, WA