The Civil Rights Movement

Gr 3–5—Both books feature easy-to-read type, multiple short chapters, and occasional sidebars, and they are adorned by abundant line drawings done in a light playful tone. In theory, they are a welcome rival for Penguin's "Who Is" series. However, in practice, they fall far short. The Civil Rights Movement begins by asking if readers have ever heard of the movement and then launches into a lengthy and dry explanation—the text doesn't reach the titular topic until page 46. Simó's illustrations do not match the tone of the subject matter and often undercut the content. For instance, smiling cartoon people are just a page turn away from a slave auction scene. In addition, the majority of the people shown protesting in The Civil Rights Movement are white. The Statue of Liberty suffers from the same readability problems. Its illustrations are also equally goofy and insensitive; for example, a group of smiling "Native Americans" (tribes are not specified) is depicted as wearing loin clothes and headbands right before the text discusses European colonization on the next page ("The original Native American inhabitants were forced to leave and try to find new homes to the north and west.").