Hitler invades Poland

School Library Journal

Gr 5-8-These titles focus on watershed dates, explaining how they changed the course of history. Hiroshima traces the development of the atomic bomb and Truman's world-changing decision to use it. The second book describes Hitler's childhood and young adulthood, explaining how his limited education and frustrated ambitions fueled his determination to gain political power and the distorted beliefs that would create the Holocaust. While looking at history through significant dates is a good premise, these books do not deliver. Both are extremely short, with only 22 pages of text, and most of those pages have a large photo. That brevity restricts the inclusion of any significant background information and the descriptions are so oversimplified that they often cannot even be considered accurate. In Hiroshima, Malam claims that Truman wanted to use the bomb to gain an "upper hand" over the Soviet Union without even mentioning other factors, such as the predictions of U.S. casualties in an invasion of Japan that were part of his decision. Hitler doesn't begin to capture the extreme complexities of the man's personality. The mostly black-and-white photos do little more than break up the text, and neither book has a bibliography or suggested reading list. Jane Claypool's Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Watts, 1984; o.p.), Albert Marrin's Hitler (Viking, 1987; o.p.), and James Cross Giblin's The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler (Clarion, 2002) provide better coverage and more reasoned analysis than these titles.-Mary Mueller, Rolla Junior High School, MO Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.