The Cuban Revolution

School Library Journal

Gr 6 Up-Rice reviews Cuban history before 1952 in one chapter, outlines the life of Fidel Castro in another, and concentrates for the remainder of the book on Batista's unlawful seizure of power and his subsequent overthrow by Castro; Castro's connection to the Soviet Union; the Bay of Pigs; the missile crisis; and present-day life in the country. A helpful time line, glossary of terms, and an annotated bibliography are included. The writing is clear, and the numerous documented quotes are interesting. The text is arranged in headlined segments with several highlighted, boxed quotations for easy reading. While the dozens of captioned black-and-white photographs and maps are rather dark and undistinguished, they do add information to the presentation. Because of the amount of detail this title offers about the Revolution, it is a good companion to Warren Brown's Fidel Castro (Millbrook, 1994) and Don Beyer's Castro! (Watts, 1993).-Marilyn Long Graham, Lee County Library System, Fort Myers, FL