(4) YA Way People Live series. Blackwood profiles the brave folks who crossed the continent on the Oregon Trail in the mid-1800s. As expected, their motives and challenges are covered, but refreshing emphasis is placed on the mundane details of their lives. (It's wryly noted that emigrants' diaries omit mention of how they performed bodily functions while traveling.) The title's only shortcoming is its grainy and drab black-and-white illustrations. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) YA Way People Live series. Currie discusses the influence of abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison's anti-slavery newspaper The Liberator within the larger context of early nineteenth-century events. Garrison himself emerges as a strong-willed, purposeful individual, torn between pacifism and violence. Archival photos and reproductions are incorporated in the text-heavy design. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Deborah L. Thompson

(4) YA Way People Live series. These historical overviews document the ravages of the plague in fourteenth-century Europe; gladiators, chariot races, and other forms of entertainment in Rome; and the culture and politics of ancient Greece. While the historical images that illustrate the books are poorly reproduced, the texts are clearly written and well-supported by boxed quotes from primary sources. Rome and Athens have glossaries; Black Death contains a time line. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Peter D. Sieruta

(4) YA Way People Live series. Currie discusses the influence of abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison's anti-slavery newspaper The Liberator within the larger context of early nineteenth-century events. Garrison himself emerges as a strong-willed, purposeful individual, torn between pacifism and violence. Archival photos and reproductions are incorporated in the text-heavy design. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Deborah L. Thompson

(4) YA Way People Live series. Looking at different aspects of African-American history, these accessible texts use both primary and secondary sources, giving readers a sense of enslaved Africans' daily hardships, the extremism of Jim Crow laws, and the exhilaration and daring involved in escape. The books' design, which includes black-and-white archival photos and drawings, is dull. Text boxes include supplemental information. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Deborah L. Thompson

(4) YA Way People Live series. Kallen profiles today's Yanomami people, the last truly primitive Amazon tribe. In clear, compassionate prose, the text discusses everyday aspects of Yanomami life--work, gender roles, spiritual beliefs and practices--as well as unanticipated challenges: diseases, ecological threats to the environment, confrontations with modern culture. The title's only demerit is for grainy and drab black-and-white photos and illustrations. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) YA Way People Live series. This overview examines the ideology of the Hitler Youth, the indoctrination and education of its members, and the work they did in Nazi military service. There is also a chapter relating the efforts of those young people who fought the Nazi movement. While the accompanying black-and-white photos are not well reproduced, the clearly written text is supported by boxed excerpts from primary sources. Bib., glos., ind.

Reviewer: Peter D. Sieruta

(4) YA Way People Live series. These historical overviews document the ravages of the plague in fourteenth-century Europe; gladiators, chariot races, and other forms of entertainment in Rome; and the culture and politics of ancient Greece. While the historical images that illustrate the books are poorly reproduced, the texts are clearly written and well-supported by boxed quotes from primary sources. Rome and Athens have glossaries; Black Death contains a time line. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Peter D. Sieruta

(4) YA Way People Live series. These historical overviews document the ravages of the plague in fourteenth-century Europe; gladiators, chariot races, and other forms of entertainment in Rome; and the culture and politics of ancient Greece. While the historical images that illustrate the books are poorly reproduced, the texts are clearly written and well-supported by boxed quotes from primary sources. Rome and Athens have glossaries; Black Death contains a time line. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Peter D. Sieruta

(4) YA Way People Live series. A well-organized account of how hundreds of thousands of would-be immigrants lived on Ellis Island in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries waiting to learn whether they would be deported or allowed to live in America. Black-and-white photos of varying quality and sidebars quoting primary documents help bring to life a historically important slice of American history. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Jack Forman