"World War II" by Simon Adams

"World War II" is one of the first non-fiction children's books I have read. There are many facets of this book that I enjoyed, including a wide array of realistic imagery and descriptions behind it. Throughout the book, the author gives the student a first hand look at many of the weapons, posters, and technology used throughout World War II, with descriptive definitions of each. The author keeps this book organized by chronologically going through each period in the war, and describing the various turning points through the use of direct of retrospective photography.

This book is excellent for students in 5th grade and above, in regards to studying World War II in social studies/history class. Aside from being very enlightening, one of the few negative aspects of this book is certain pictures may stray the student away from the big picture. Unfortunately, there are no sections that tie the entire war together for a wholistic perspective, rather just the bits and pieces explained. I believe this book would be most effective for at expressing the technologies of WWII, rather than a more unifying perspective towards the war.