Horn Book Guide Reviews : Horn Book Guide Reviews 2004 Spring A dry but informative text introduces the geography, history, government, culture, and economy of the featured country. In a textbook-like design, color photographs and maps offer a comprehensive resource for report-driven readers. The book is intended to be used with a designated website. Directory, reading list, timeline, websites. Bib., glos., ind. [Review covers these Visual Geography titles: [cf2]Russia in Pictures[cf1] and [cf2]Germany in Pictures[cf1].] Copyright 2004 Horn Book Guide Reviews.
School Library Journal Reviews : SLJ Reviews 2004 January Gr 5-8-This study consists of chapters on the land, history and government, the people, cultural life, and the economy, and has visuals on almost every page. Sidebars present special topics such as permafrost, the Cossacks, and caviar. The text is generally adequate, but in places it can be misleading. For example, twice the author asserts that Russia "joined some of the former Soviet republics to become the Russian Federation," when, in fact, it is composed of the same autonomous republics and regions as in the Soviet period. The history section offers no explanation of what happened between the February and November revolutions, and readers are told that opposition to Mikhail Gorbachev was spearheaded by Boris Yeltsin, while there is no mention of the coup attempt by a group of dedicated communists. In the section on people, the only photo of a minority group shows Roma children, who are described as begging. This chapter on people includes many social challenges, such as alcoholism and HIV/AIDS, but the book presents a largely positive picture of cultural life and inheritance of the Russians. The suggestions for further reading are an odd mix of books for preteens and complex novels by Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy. The strongest feature of the book is the enhanced Web site, which provides an array of links for reports that have lots of wonderful photographs, maps, and videos.-Elizabeth Talbot, University of Illinois, Champaign Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
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