The Southern Home Front of the Civil War

December 1, 2010

Gr 4-6-The strength of these titles is that they explain the two main causes of the Civil War, i.e., slavery and states' rights. Each chapter poses a question and then answers it. Sepia and black-and-white photos, reproductions, a few color paintings, and simple maps appear in all of the volumes. Photo selection is good, but the captions, printed on a blue-gray background, are hard to read and repeated in the texts. The various titles are so closely related that some images appear in more than one book and snippets of text are used verbatim. Battles correctly states that Texas seceded from the Union, but the accompanying color-coded map does not reflect this fact. Some sentences are grammatically incorrect or imprecise. In Northern Home Front, Baxter states that "more than 2.5 million acres of land was homesteaded." She also states that "Letters galloped across the country with the Pony Express." In Southern Home Front, the Hunley is said to have "snuck" across Charleston Harbor. By and large, these titles are factually accurate, but such small, but pervasive flaws diminish their value, making them secondary purchases. This entire set could have been incorporated into one volume. Jennifer Johnson's Gettysburg; The Bloodiest Battle of The Civil War (Scholastic, 2009) is a better choice.-Eldon Younce, Anthony Public Library, KS

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