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Junior Chronicle of the Twentieth Century

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BfK No. 108 - January 1998

Cover Story
This issue’s cover shows titles from Anthony Masters’ new ‘Weird World’ series aimed to grab reluctant readers. Anthony Masters is interviewed by George Hunt. Thanks to Bloomsbury Children’s Books for their help in producing this January cover.

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Junior Chronicle of the Twentieth Century

Simon Adams
(Dorling Kindersley)
336pp, NON FICTION, 978-0751356137, Paperback
10-14 Middle/Secondary
Buy "The Junior Chronicle of the 20th Century" on Amazon

This is the kind of subject that the DK approach suits best: a thick book bulging with facts, figures and photos, with a headline and a paragraph to each, al about the century that is drawing to a close. It is a year by year account of the significant and the merely diverting. Arbitrarily, each year gets a double page spread, as if history made sure that one year was never more action packed than another. But the editors make up for the imbalance with a large number of double page features on topics as diverse as Pioneers of Aviation, High Life in the Thirties, Occupation and Resistance, and Fifties Toys and Games. Yes, it is a way of putting all those 'Eyewitness' books together in a different order - and it has an inevitable transatlantic feel; but it is done with flair, impeccable design, fine production, the use of a staggering range of photographic sources, and, as important, careful indexing. There is nothing particularly Junior about it. It would probably be most useful in secondary schools. And there is not a great deal about any one thing either: but it is fun to work your way through or dip into. Expensive at £25, it should have the same appeal as the Guinness Book of Records. Open it anywhere and be amazed at what you did not know.

Reviewer: 
Clive Barnes
4
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