LIFE: Our Century in Pictures for Young People (Hardcover)

by Richard B. Stolley (Author), Amy E. Sklansky (Illustrator) "A new century seems full of hope and promise, like a new beginning for the world..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, World War, White House (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
The 20th century began with the invention of Kodak's Brownie camera and the first flight by the Wright brothers and ended with Nelson Mandela's return to political power and the deaths of John F. Kennedy Jr., Mother Teresa, and Princess Diana. And who better to pictorially recount the events of this epoch than Life magazine? Divided not by decade, but by nine historical clusters of years (1900-13, 1914-19, 1920-29, 1930-39, 1940-45, 1946-63, 1964-75, 1976-92, 1993-99), this photographic chronicle brings to life the amazing, horrifying, poignant, and thrilling moments that made up a century. Each chapter is introduced with an essay by a distinguished children's writer, including Jane Yolen, Avi, Gary Paulsen, Patrick and Fredrick McKissack, and Lois Lowry, and includes special sections called "Turning Points," which trace a trend or event from the beginning to the end of the century. Concluding each chapter are "Requiems," in which the lives of important people who died during those years are recalled. But it's the more than 380 remarkable photographs from Life magazine's archives that make this volume truly epic. Young readers who spent only a few years in the previous century will look with awe and wonder at the pictures taken during their parents' and grandparents' time, telling about Woodstock, the Holocaust, Babe Ruth, Bill Gates, the discovery of atomic power, and Sigmund Freud. From politics to art to technology to science to social change, this book touches on it all, and will be a tremendous resource for years to come. (Ages 12 and older) --Emilie Coulter

From Publishers Weekly
Adapted by Amy Sklansky from the adult bestseller LIFE: Our Century in Pictures, this superb collection of carefully chosen, powerful images with pithy captions captures the events, people and culture that shaped the last 100 years. The volume overall does not go into the same amount of detail as Jennings and Brewster's recent The Century for Young People; on the other hand, Stolley, a longtime Time-Life journalist, covers events on a global scale. An ideal introduction for young people because of its highly visual focus, the book juxtaposes events close to home with those far away; in one spread, for example, a caption for a photo of Margaret Sanger discusses her 1916 arrest in New York for preaching contraception and appears alongside a picture of Dublin's Easter Monday uprising the same year. Stolley divides the century into nine chapters or "epochs," each briefly introduced by an award-winning children's author, including Lois Lowry, Jerry Spinelli and Katherine Paterson. Patricia and Fredrick McKissack's "Changes" (covering 1946-1963), for instance, offers a personal look at postwar America and sets the stage for the burgeoning civil rights and women's movements with all their triumphs and disappointments. Each chapter includes a "Turning Point" that describes such pivotal developments as space exploration and such cultural phenomena as the American musical, and concludes with a "Requiem" commemorating the deceased who defined the era. A visual treasure trove. Ages 10-up. (Nov.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Hardcover: 232 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers; 1st edition (October 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316815896
• ISBN-13: 978-0316815895
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 9.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #193,738 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

93 of 100 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Whose century?, November 27, 2000

By	James E. Jerdon (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Knowing that the photographs would be evocative and interesting, I purchased this book for my nephew. But after reading the captions which accompany many of the photos, I have reconsidered my decision. To start with, the language used in the captions is hardly appropriate for the young reader. No effort seems to have been made by the editors to contextualize, politically or historically, the images selected. Often there is a loose "thematic" arrangement which sets images in opposition without a clear statement of the connections, chronological or otherwise, between them. The captions read as if the editors haphazardly, and hurriedly, chopped up the narrative from the "adult" version of the text to create a text thoughtlessly marketed to younger readers. Worse still is the glaring editorial bias, bordering on jingoism, with which the text treats the Cold War and the former Soviet Union. While I hardly expected the editors at Life magazine to present a balanced narrative about the clash of ideas that defined so much of the last century, I was shocked to see the Soviets repeatedly referred to as "Reds", a term that very few of the children born after the collapse of the Soviet Union would even understand, and in a page dedicated to the McCarthy hearings, Communism was referenced as a "disease" (news to more than one medical professional I am sure) and the young reader is reminded that McCarthy was attacking a very real "communist threat" but lamentably had gone too far.

It is understandable that in a Post-Communist world we can see the projects of the Soviet Union and its allies as failures, and there is no harm in naming them as such, but the anachronistic and, frankly, stupid "slang" used by the writers reflects the degree to which they were NOT creating an educational text, but rather an out-dated propagandistic tract. I would not recommend this book to anyone who wants to foment thoughtful analysis in the minds of the young people they know. A total dud!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Our Century In Picture, March 21, 2005

By	Griff Meehan "Griff" (Simsbury, Ct USA) - See all my reviews

I think this book is a great book for kids who really would like to learn about Americas past time. It gives you detailed information about are Nation times and the up's and downs. I learned lot from this book and it has a good twist from most books.

3.0 out of 5 stars Fine if you aren't looking for indepth info, May 14, 2008

By	Leslie S. (New Hampshire) - See all my reviews

I purchased this book to use with Sonlight Core 300, the 20th Century. It is one of the main required texts for the program. I am very glad that I was able to purchase it cheap from a seller, as there is not a lot of information in the book. The pictures are interesting to browse, but I am sure that one could easily complete a study of the 20th century without the book. It's not a bad book, just not a great book.