Pearl Harbor: Deadly Surprise Attack (American Disasters) [Library Binding]

Therese DeAngelis (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up | Series: American Disasters

Traces events leading up to and resulting from the December 7, 1941, Japanese attack on American battleships at Pearl Harbor, which brought the United States into World War II.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-6-A brief introduction to a complex event. The basic story of the world situation and the actions of both countries leading up to the attack is accurate, but extremely simplified. Most of the captions add some information to the vintage photos, which are printed in monochromatic dusty hues of blue, green, and pink. Two full-color reproductions of World War II posters and two present-day color photos are included. With only one sparsely labeled map of the Pacific, it is assumed that readers know the locations of the warring European countries mentioned in the text, as well as the locations of Manchuria, Russia, and the Philippines. De Angelis states that the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines all had bases at Pearl Harbor in 1941. However, the U.S. Air Force did not exist at that time; it was still part of the Army. She also credits Admiral Yamamoto with the initial concept of the surprise attack and states that "Most experts- agree that Yamamoto greatly misjudged how fiercely Americans would react to a surprise attack." However, other sources suggest that he believed that if the attack was not absolutely fatal, Japan could not survive a protracted war with the U.S. The memorial at Pearl Harbor is briefly discussed and the text concludes rather suddenly with the dropping of the atomic bombs. New is not necessarily better. Stick with standard titles on the subject.
Eldon Younce, Harper Elementary School, KS
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Reviewed with Gina De Angelis' Jonestown Massacre.

Gr. 6-9. Two new volumes in the American Disasters series highlight very different events in America's history. In Jonestown, De Angelis describes the 1978 mass suicide of the followers of Jim Jones and the ill-fated rescue mission to Guyana. Pearl Harbor recounts the "day that will live in infamy" and its aftermath. The illustrations in both volumes are arresting, the footnoting is meticulous, and there are numerous quotes to keep the history immediate and personal. Each book also includes a time line of similar disasters, a glossary, and a bibliography appropriate for students, increasing the book's value as report material. Few books for the age group deal with the disturbing events at Jonestown, and though much is available on Pearl Harbor, De Angelis' account will work for both younger students and older reluctant readers. Catherine Andronik
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Library Binding: 48 pages
• Publisher: Enslow Publishers (July 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0766017834
• ISBN-13: 978-0766017832
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,935,258 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent summary, but nothing special, July 28, 2004

By 

Andrew S. Rogers (Stamford, Connecticut) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pearl Harbor: Deadly Surprise Attack (American Disasters) (Library Binding)

Pearl Harbor: Deadly Surprise Attack is part of the American Disasters series, a group of juvenile-literature titles intended to introduce elementary-age kids to momentous negative events in American history. As an introduction, this is a decent enough title, I suppose. But it's really nothing to get excited about, and probably shouldn't displace other similar works on the subject.

Author Therese De Angelis strives to place the attack within the political and military context of the era, particularly Japanese expansion in the Far East and American reactions to it. The book's one map illustrates the Pacific, and labels Hawaii, the U.S. mainland, and Japan, but none of the other nations mentioned in the text. And while there's one aerial photo of the Pearl Harbor naval base, there's no map of either the harbor or of Oahu generally. I found this probably the book's most serious shortcoming.

While the general portrait of the planning, execution, and aftermath of the attack are competently told, there are a number of small mistakes that mar the narrative. One paragraph on page 13, for example, mentions that the U.S. Air Force had bases in Hawaii, although in fact the U.S.A.F. wasn't founded as an independent service until after the war. And in a chart of "Other Military Disasters" at the end of the book, the Boston Massacre and the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution are included. Those may be many things, but was the resolution itself a "disaster"? Was the massacre "military"?

More seriously, De Angelis writes on page 15, "Most experts who study World War II agree that Yamamoto greatly misjudged how fiercely Americans would react to an American attack." In fact, Yamamoto probably understood better than anyone in the Japanese senior command what the American response would entail, and had the fewest illusions about what his nation was facing as a consequence. Oddly, toward the end of her book, De Angelis states that the creation of the Central Intelligence Agency and the formation of the Department of Defense resulted from the Pearl Harbor attack, but then comments that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were *not* direct results of the attack.

On the whole, this book may be a fair way for parents or teachers to help children get a general idea of what happened at Pearl Harbor and why. But anyone wanting more than the basics will need to look elsewhere.