The Importance of Mark Twain

Press, Skip

ISBN 10: 1560060433 ISBN 13: 9781560060437

Publisher: Lucent Books

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Discusses the life, works, and legacy of Mark Twain, the most successful author of his day.

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From School Library Journal:

Grade 6-9-Although personal lives are mentioned, the focus of these biographies is on their subjects' work and societal impact. The information is clearly organized, but the textbook format (two-column text, muddy black-and-white photos and reproductions, indented quotations, excessive sidebars) is not likely to attract readers. Chronological examinations of the men's lives are accurate and well researched, and there are extensive endnotes. Napoleon Bonaparte is the most successful in presenting the man within the context of his era and integrating pertinent European history into the description of his military and political rise and fall. Thomas Edison's inventions are explained within the context of how electricity, chemistry, and mechanical processes were understood, with only oblique references to political and economic events. Mark Twain contains the best blend of the subject's personal and professional life, but the author sometimes oversimplifies important issues, and readers will come away with no real understanding of the time in which he lived. The datelines preceding the first chapters are not uniformly thorough from title to title, and none includes events that place the person's life in context. In each book, the subject's personality is revealed through documented events and writings, with an unbiased approach to strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately, frequent insertion of bracketed definitions of vocabulary words are distracting and often unnecessary. Report writers are more likely to be drawn to biographies like Steve Parker's Thomas Edison and Electricity (HarperCollins, 1992), which is not as thorough, but is far more attractive and readable.
Sandy Kirkpatrick, Benicia Public Library, CA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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