Synopsis
A biography of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, twentieth-century German politician.
School Library Journal
Gr 7 Up-These books begin with a six-page foreword on leadership by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. (The same one is used in the "Ancient World Leaders" series.) The format of color-coded chapters and full-color, captioned photos is also reminiscent of that series. All three titles try to capture the essence of a leader, beginning with some history of the man's country and then moving through his life to his position of power. To the uninitiated, there is too much information in too few pages. Schroeder is the easiest of the three perhaps due to the familiarity many readers will have with the history of Germany and the names of past leaders. While lively and interesting, Kim Il Sung is confusing because of the names; Karzai is perhaps the driest in style. None of the books cites sources, and bits of the texts seem to be opinion rather than fact. All three titles have extensive indexes and thorough chronologies. However, the lack of documentation sends an unfortunate message to report writers.-Marilyn Fairbanks, Azure IRC, Brockton High School, MA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.