Children of the Great Depression

Freedman, Russel. Children of The Great Depression. Houghton Mifflin Company: New York 2005.

Annotation

In the 1930's the times were hard, families were jobless, the government couldn't be depended on, and the nation was in search for economic recovery.

Justification for Rejection

A person doesn't have to be a historical buff to understand what went on in the great depression. To give a vague explanation, someone might say: Nobody could get a job, the banks lost money, and children were forced to worked. The book was full of great story telling pictures, and it introduced quotes from individuals throughout that time frame, but that wasn't enough. the pictures explained more then the words. The information freedman gave was information that children learn in school. It is information that youth can obtain by reading a paragraph from the Internet. In 2009 the society is facing a crisis of it's own related to economics, but this book doesn't take the present day into affect. The book ends by vaguely talking about the turn around in the 1940's because of San Fransisco's Golden Gate international explosion, and New York's World Fair. The book didn't explain how society turned around and where it was headed. The information in this book was data that the general public already knew, and there wasn't enough insight to tell us about how and why the nation changed. The book talked about world war II for one page and then switched back to the depression? Freedman dealt with a big subject, but not enough information was given that could enhance the perspective of any given reader.

Genre: Historical fiction.