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Title: A Prose Anthology of World War II by Robert Hull ISBN: 0-7502-0453-2 Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Childrens Division Pub. Date: 30 November, 1992 Format: Hardcover

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Average Customer Rating: 4 (1 review)

Rating: 4
Summary: First person accounts of those who endured World War II
Comment: I was curious to what young readers would find inside a book entitled "A Prose Anthology of the Second World War," although I understood that this would be intended as a supplemental volume to a standard history textbook about the war. Indeed, this book argues that textbook descriptions of battles, and statistics of the vast number of people who were killed and wounded, makes it hard to grasp what the war really meant to the people who were involved. However, if a student reads a pair of letters sent to a German Doctor, the first in 1915 reporting the death of his son in World War I and the second in 1933 informing him he can no longer serve in as a practicing doctor because he was a Jew, the point of history can be brought home. This anthology presents descriptions of the Second World War through extracts from memoirs, diaries and letters. There is a wide range of perspectives contained within these pages, from a Russian student going to defend Leningrad from the invading Germans to Japanese civilians seeking refuge from air attacks. There are accounts from people from different nations on both sides of the war expressing their horror at the war.

The volume is divided into seven thematic chapters: The Nazis and the Jews, Fighting in Western Europe, Refugees and "Aliens," Bombing the Cities, Women in the War, In the Pacific, and Endings. The most interesting was probably "Bombing the Cities," which brings together such disparate voices as a British civilian whose house was hit during the Blitz, the American wife of a Japanese diplomat who lived ina city that was fire bombed, a British member of the House of Lords calling the allied bombing of German cities a violation of international law, and English and German pilots second guessing what they were doing. Consequently, teachers covering World War II can find some excerpts here that will help them drive home some particular points they want to make about the subject. The volume is also of some use to students as a reference book, if they stumble across it and it happens to speak to the particular topic on which they are working.

The book is illustrated with black & white period photographs that actually have to do with the topic under discussion on each page. The collection is edited by Robert Hull, a writer, teacher, and poet whose previous work included "The Language Gap," "Behind the Poem," selections of poetry in Wayland's Thematic Poetry series, and ghost-writer of "My Childhhood in Nazi Germany." Clearly he demonstrates sensitivity towards the subject and an awareness of the sensibilities of his young audience. I am sure there are more gems like this out there, but this is a nice little start.