People of Virginia

School Library Journal

Gr 4-6-These accessible series entries provide solid introductions to their topics. Smith is careful to present a varied perspective on many events, showing how some parts of Virginia's historical heritage affected Native Americans, European settlers, African Americans, women, and other groups in divergent ways. Although there is some overlap among the volumes (History and Native Peoples, for example), the repetition exists only for context. The layout is attractive, including many full-color photographs, reproductions, and graphs. The texts are readable and informative without going into too much detail. The indexes are not detailed, but common research topics are easily located and children will be able to find needed information quickly. The volumes can be used individually or as a set. Concise without being oversimplified, colorful but not cluttered, these books will be useful to both school and public libraries. For those outside the commonwealth, Jean F. Blashfield's Virginia (Children's, 1999) and Tracy Barrett's Virginia (Benchmark, 1997) should suffice. However, for Virginia libraries, these titles are a worthwhile expense.-Lucinda Snyder Whitehurst, St. Christopher's School, Richmond, VA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.