(4) YA World Writers series. Full of information, these titles explore the personal and professional trajectories of popular authors. Real Courage also delves into the social and political history of the time. The subjects are engaging, but the books would benefit from better organization. The stock photographs are often only tangentially related to the texts. Timeline, websites. Bib., ind. Review covers these World Writers titles: Rick Riordan, Real Courage, and Suzanne Collins.

Reviewer: Rebecca Hachmyer

(4) YA World Writers series. Full of information, these titles explore the personal and professional trajectories of popular authors. Real Courage also delves into the social and political history of the time. The subjects are engaging, but the books would benefit from better organization. The stock photographs are often only tangentially related to the texts. Timeline, websites. Bib., ind. Review covers these World Writers titles: Rick Riordan, Real Courage, and Suzanne Collins.

Reviewer: Rebecca Hachmyer

(4) YA World Writers series. Full of information, these titles explore the personal and professional trajectories of popular authors. Real Courage also delves into the social and political history of the time. The subjects are engaging, but the books would benefit from better organization. The stock photographs are often only tangentially related to the texts. Timeline, websites. Bib., ind. Review covers these World Writers titles: Rick Riordan, Real Courage, and Suzanne Collins.

Reviewer: Rebecca Hachmyer

(4) YA World Writers series. "Reading for me was a refuge...It was almost sinful how much I liked it" (Amy Tan). Integrating the subjects' voices, love of literature, chronologies, and major works against a background of world events, these series installments effectively explore how the authors' personal lives influenced their writing. Many photographs, some applicable, some that seem like an afterthought, illustrate the solid narratives. Timeline, websites. Bib., ind. Review covers these World Writers titles: Self-Reliance, C. S. Lewis, and From China to America.

Reviewer: Rebecca Hachmyer

(4) YA World Writers series. "Reading for me was a refuge...It was almost sinful how much I liked it" (Amy Tan). Integrating the subjects' voices, love of literature, chronologies, and major works against a background of world events, these series installments effectively explore how the authors' personal lives influenced their writing. Many photographs, some applicable, some that seem like an afterthought, illustrate the solid narratives. Timeline, websites. Bib., ind. Review covers these World Writers titles: Self-Reliance, C. S. Lewis, and From China to America.

Reviewer: Rebecca Hachmyer

(4) YA World Writers series. "Reading for me was a refuge...It was almost sinful how much I liked it" (Amy Tan). Integrating the subjects' voices, love of literature, chronologies, and major works against a background of world events, these series installments effectively explore how the authors' personal lives influenced their writing. Many photographs, some applicable, some that seem like an afterthought, illustrate the solid narratives. Timeline, websites. Bib., ind. Review covers these World Writers titles: Self-Reliance, C. S. Lewis, and From China to America.

Reviewer: Rebecca Hachmyer

(3) YA World Writers series. While Twain was best known for his humor and wit, Caravantes shows in this enjoyable biography that his life was marked by tragedy, financial worries, and artistic difficulties. The text is solid and sheds new light on this well-known subject. The portrayal will make readers want to experience Twain's writing directly. Occasional photographs break up the pages. Timeline, websites. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Chelsey Philpot

(3) YA World Writers series. As a young girl, Shelley, the child of two influential and radical writers, decided herself to eschew societal norms. This engaging biography limns her unconventional life, focusing on her love affair (and later marriage) with poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, the writing of Frankenstein when she was still a teenager, and the novel's infamy and lasting influence. Period illustrations and photographs appear throughout. Timeline, websites. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute

(4) YA World Writers series. Hurston's complicated life is represented as both a product of and a response to familial struggles, racial discrimination, and national movements. Sapet makes thoughtful use of Hurston's own words and provides historic background to shape this portrait of the writer and folklorist. Ill-considered design elements, including the blurry cover photo and dense layout, are unfortunate distractions. Timeline, websites. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Megan Lynn Isaac

(4) YA World Writers series. Heims portrays the author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina as a man difficult to ignore, dismiss--or like. This volume emphasizes the indecision of Tolstoy's early years and the radical Christianity of his last decades. His complexity and extraordinary social influence in Russia come through in the dry text. Photographs and art reproductions help set the scene. Timeline, websites. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Megan Lynn Isaac

(4) YA World Writers series. Gelletly's volume, which focuses on Dahl's post-WWII career, is less engaging than Dahl's own autobiographical works; the book is illustrated with numerous photographs. Aykroyd's workaday biography of Swift presents the opinionated Anglo-Irish minister and his razor-edged writing in the context of the complicated political times. Period illustrations provide welcome breaks from the informative, if not compelling, text. Timeline, websites. Bib., ind. Review covers these World Writers titles: Savage Satire and Gift of Imagination.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute

(4) YA World Writers series. Gelletly's volume, which focuses on Dahl's post-WWII career, is less engaging than Dahl's own autobiographical works; the book is illustrated with numerous photographs. Aykroyd's workaday biography of Swift presents the opinionated Anglo-Irish minister and his razor-edged writing in the context of the complicated political times. Period illustrations provide welcome breaks from the informative, if not compelling, text. Timeline, websites. Bib., ind. Review covers these World Writers titles: Savage Satire and Gift of Imagination.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute

(4) YA World Writers series. Bracket explores Cisneros's Chicana heritage and its influences on her writing. The focus is primarily on her feelings of isolation and her attempts to feel at home with her surroundings and culture. The well-researched but sterile and disjointed text includes brief literary analyses of Cisneros's writings as well as discussions of her political activism. Timeline. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Norah Piehl

(4) YA World Writers series. Woolf's struggle with depression and family conflict is depicted in a historical and literary context. Her writing career is chronicled in some detail, but more excerpts from her work would have added texture to the narrative. Black-and-white photos illustrate the book. Timeline. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Kate Murphy

(4) YA World Writers series. Nobel Peace Prize-winner Addams--pacifist, children's and women's rights advocate, founder of Hull House--is profiled in this able if occasionally lacking biography. Great anecdotes (as one about Addams's meeting with Leo Tolstoy) occasionally muscle out basic information (we learn only as an aside that Addams helped found the NAACP in 1909). Black-and-white photos are scattered throughout. Timeline, websites. Bib., glos., ind.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) YA World Writers series. Discovery of self and one's talents through self-reflection and cross-cultural experience are at the heart of this biography of the author of Out of Africa. Leslie emphasizes Dinesen's belief in accepting one's fate with hope--despite hardship--and her notion that something beautiful can come from suffering. The book is illustrated with black-and-white photos. Timeline, websites. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Neill Sharp Myers

(4) YA World Writers series. This succinct, straightforward account of Poe's life provides basic facts about his troubled childhood and discusses the importance of specific works--such as his short story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and his poem "The Raven"--in the canon of American literature. Illustrated with poorly reproduced archival images, the volume contains a timeline and a list of Poe's major works. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Peter D. Sieruta

(4) YA World Writers series. The author of The Great Gatsby is profiled in a fast-paced, fairly thorough biography. Issues such as Fitzgerald's rocky marriage to Zelda, his alcoholism, and his infidelities are handled in a non-sensationalized manner. The text states that Fitzgerald captured his era in his works, but his novels aren't described in enough detail for readers to get a sense of their essence. The book is illustrated with black-and-white photos. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Peter D. Sieruta

(4) YA World Writers series. The African-American author is profiled in a volume that capably describes his early experiences in the American South, his move north, and his years as an expatriate in Europe. Unfortunately, the biography gets bogged down in details about Wright's affiliation with the Communist party and provides only cursory information about his later writing career. The book is illustrated with black-and-white photos. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Peter D. Sieruta

(3) YA World Writers series. Illustrated with black-and-white photos, this biography of the prominent muckraker covers both her laudable efforts (e.g., a biography of Abraham Lincoln) and her biased but groundbreaking look at John D. Rockefeller in The History of the Standard Oil Company. Somervill does not shrink away from presenting the more controversial aspects of Tarbell's life and career. Bib., glos., ind.

Reviewer: Jeannine M. Chapman