Osprey Graphic History
A few months ago I discovered the Osprey Graphic History series
as five volumes were available online at a significant discount. They are essentially comic-book accounts of key battles and looked like they might be a fun addition to our other books so I purchased them. The five volumes are:
Surprise Attack: Battle of Shiloh
The Bloodiest Day: Battle of Antietam
Gamble for Victory: Battle of Gettysburg
Day of Infamy: Attack on Pearl Harbor
The Empire Falls: Battle of Midway
Each volume is about 50 pp. long, including an opening section which introduces the background, key characters and overview of the event. Then the comic begins and is well illustrated. There is also an index, a glossary, and recommended sources (books and internet) for more information. My boys were instantly drawn to them and were begging to read them.
However, the style of the drawings alerted me that they might be intended for a slightly older audience- not that there was anything particularly graphic on the covers, but simply the style looked like what you see in comics pitched at a higher age range. When I looked them over before giving them to my boys I was disappointed to find profanity at various places in the volumes. In the end this was enough to make me decide these were not right for my boys at this time.
It is sad that such language is included in books intended for kids. The history is fairly well done. Since I am currently reading Shelby Foote’s mammoth classic on the Civil War, I noticed that the comic on Shiloh seemed to have been drawn almost directly from Foote. There are other volumes in this series, but I assume they are the same as these.
If there are any publishers reading, I think there is a market for books like these that are actually age appropriate.
as five volumes were available online at a significant discount. They are essentially comic-book accounts of key battles and looked like they might be a fun addition to our other books so I purchased them. The five volumes are:Surprise Attack: Battle of Shiloh
The Bloodiest Day: Battle of Antietam
Gamble for Victory: Battle of Gettysburg
Day of Infamy: Attack on Pearl Harbor
The Empire Falls: Battle of Midway
Each volume is about 50 pp. long, including an opening section which introduces the background, key characters and overview of the event. Then the comic begins and is well illustrated. There is also an index, a glossary, and recommended sources (books and internet) for more information. My boys were instantly drawn to them and were begging to read them.
However, the style of the drawings alerted me that they might be intended for a slightly older audience- not that there was anything particularly graphic on the covers, but simply the style looked like what you see in comics pitched at a higher age range. When I looked them over before giving them to my boys I was disappointed to find profanity at various places in the volumes. In the end this was enough to make me decide these were not right for my boys at this time.
It is sad that such language is included in books intended for kids. The history is fairly well done. Since I am currently reading Shelby Foote’s mammoth classic on the Civil War, I noticed that the comic on Shiloh seemed to have been drawn almost directly from Foote. There are other volumes in this series, but I assume they are the same as these.
If there are any publishers reading, I think there is a market for books like these that are actually age appropriate.
posted by Ray Van Neste @ 9:38 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Moses says: "I like the book. I am 7 years old and my older brother is 16 and he likes the book too.
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