The Wound Is Mortal

September 1, 2015

Gr 5 Up-A highly attractive design featuring crisp photos, colored text boxes and sidebars, and clearly labeled chapters and subsections sets this series apart. Four American tragedies spanning the late 19th through early 21st centuries are described and examined. With a smooth narrative style, each title jumps into the action while providing historical context. Interspersed with the informational and background chapters are firsthand accounts from various eyewitnesses, providing different points of view on each event. Though not as simple as other hi-lo series (these texts are written at about a third-to-fourth-grade reading level), the appealing visuals, strong writing, and solid nonfiction features make this of interest to both middle schoolers and struggling high school readers.

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2015

Gr 4-8-Tangled history indeed. In each of these volumes, the narrative shifts from one first-person account to another. There are some genuine primary source accounts here, but there are some based on conjectures, too. There is no indication of which is which, so readers won't know that the account of the firefighter who survived being trapped in the North Tower on September 11 is substantiated by the fireman's real memories but that the report of World Trade Center employees' last moments alive are conjecture (because no one really knows for sure what they thought). All of Wound Is Mortal is written in the present tense, which is awkward, given that the events are established history. Illustrations are sparse and rarely depict the people being quoted. VERDICT Disappointing. Skip these.

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.