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This 2019 #TayshasList honoree presents a perfect argument for social justice & restorative practices. #CETReviews #RRockreviewsHS   |   @DashkaSlater ,  @fsgbooks ,  @yartxla ,  @LibrariesRRock  

The Space Race  is one title among many in the  World History Series .  This book is an illustrated informational book that explores the history of rocketry and explains America’s race against the Soviet Union to be the first to land a man on the moon.  The books illustrations are largely comprised of photographs through which readers can understand the scope and depth of the concept.   The Space Race  pairs nicely with a study of President John F. Kennedy’s persuasive speeches, especially  “The Decision to Go to the Moon.”     CHRISTINA E. TAYLOR The Space Race [World History Series] b y by  Nathan Aaseng Middle School     Lucent Books 110 pp.  Published 2015  ISBN 978-1560068099 $28.70

Civil Rights  is an informational book in the  Examining Issues Through Political Cartoons  series. Beginning with a lengthy preface detailing the history of African-American civil rights from the early 19th to the late 20th century, it then features four chapters which proceed roughly chronologically beginning in the 1960s. Each chapter contains a preface to its topic and one or more  political cartoons  accompanied by analyses for each. With cartoons chosen to represent opinions across the political spectrum, this book presents the contemporary controversy while maintaining an authorial voice at once evenhanded but free of false equivalence. As a brief but engaging introduction to historical and current issues in civil rights, this book could serve well as background to teaching  Martin Luther King Jr. 's " I Have a Dream " speech.  CHRISTINA E. TAYLOR Civil Rights [Examining Issues Through Political Cartoons series]  Ed...

Women in Ancient Greece  is another title in  The Other Half of History  series.  Macdonald addresses how women of the era lived, were viewed by their contemporaries in life and in myth, as well as their struggles and accomplishments. Broken up into easily accessible sections ranging from an overview to religion, the informational text is complemented and extended by sidebars, maps, captioned photographs of figurative art and sculpture, and quotations from contemporary poets, authors, playwrights, and philosophers.  This text would make a nice supplement to a study of background information for Greek mythology, Greek tragedies, and  Homer ’s  Odyssey  or  Iliad  by providing historical information. Women in Ancient Greece [The Other Half of History series] b y Fiona Macdonald  Middle Grade  Peter Bedrick Books 48 pp.  Published 1999  ISBN 978-0-8722-6568-4 $17.95 

By exploring developments in various fields of study and interest,  The Renaissance —part of the  See Through History  series—presents a broad overview of the events, institutions and technology which shaped its titular era. Proceeding from a brief explanation of the fall of the western Roman Empire and the ensuing Middle Ages, this work addresses a new topic with every opening, breaking each subject down into bold-headed sections, each with a handful of sentences written in a broad informational style. Illustrations are plentiful, and include both representational scenes and contemporary art and maps. Four of the chapters include a full-page illustration of a building with a transparent overlay which reveals the inner structure when the page is turned. Although it is of necessity highly focused on the European experience of the era, and lacks a great deal of analytical depth and detail, this book would make a good introduction to the era for students about to read Mac...

Image from goodreads.com Reading a comic book is easy enough; children and adults of all ages manage to do so almost instinctively. To understand comics, though, is a more challenging endeavor; luckily comics theorist Scott McCloud has done a great deal of research and thinking on the subject and in this book lays out his theories and ideas about what he and Will Eisner term "sequential art." In turns humorous, surprising, and informative, his easygoing and well-paced prose pairs with his varied but unassuming linework to form an accessible whole, a comic book about comic books which takes the reader from the common notion of comics well into the depths of sequential art. For the educator interested in using sequential art in the classroom, Understanding Comics would serve as invaluable guide to the form. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art  by Scott McCloud Post-secondary  HarperPerennial 215pp. Published 1993 ISBN 978-0-0609-7625-5 $22.99