Living Through the Civil War by Yvette LaPierre - NO

Living Through the Civil War by Yvette LaPierre. NONFICTION PICTURE BOOK. Rourke Educational Media, 2019. $25. 9781641564151.


BUYING ADVISORY: EL(K-3), EL - NO

AUDIENCE APPEAL: LOW

This is a nonfiction informational text about life in the USA during the Civil War era. The information is interspersed with numerous photographs and primary source pictures. The chapters go over the basics of why the Civil War started, how slavery was involved, and more.

This book is something of an affront to anyone with a serious mind for history. There were numerous typos and errors that sometimes changed entirely the meaning of a sentence; some of the historical "facts" made me question their precision. And I was straight-up annoyed to find a total lack of footnotes or bibliography of any sort. There are numerous books like this available on the market (some of them even listed at the back of this book!) and I am confident other books do it better than this. I would suggest getting this book only if using it as an example of what not to do when writing history.

Reviewer: TC