From School Library Journal
Grade 6-9-These books are good examples of bad biographies. They are superficial and poorly written, awkward and repetitious. Both lack maps, a major liability as dozens of places (many unfamiliar to modern readers) are crucial to the subjects' stories. Both also lack glossaries, a big deterrent as neither author does a particularly good job of defining terms in context. Family trees would also be beneficial to keep track of often convoluted relationships. Eleanor has glaring errors and omissions. For example, the author states on one page that Eleanor's first daughter was Marie, and on another, Margaret; Henry II did not inherit England from his father, as the book claims, but through his mother. Polly Shoyer Brooks's Queen Eleanor (Houghton, 1999) is a better choice. In just her first chapter in The Medicis, Wagner throws out the words mass, cathedral, pope, cardinal, archbishop, mercenary, villa, host (religious), sacrilege, priest, choir (architecture), altar, clergy, and organ gallery; she also frequently refers to the Renaissance without ever explaining what it is or why it is significant. Nothing else is available for this audience specifically on the Medici family.-Ann W. Moore, Schenectady County Public Library, NY
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