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BfK No. 114 - January 1999

Cover Story
This issue’s cover is from Michael Foreman and Michael Morpurgo’s Joan of Arc. Thanks to Pavilion for their help in producing this January cover.

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Victorians

Ann Kramer
(DK ELT/Schools)
48pp, NON FICTION, 978-0751357752, RRP £9.99, Hardcover
10-14 Middle/Secondary
Buy "The Victorians (Eyewitness Guides)" on Amazon

Is there no subject that DK think cannot be covered in their oh so familiar house style? Once again we have double page spreads, stark white backgrounds, an introductory para or two in larger print in the top left hand corner and eight or ten illustrations of various sizes (contemporary drawings, photographs, ephemera and artefacts culled from various museums with attendant commentary). While this title is not actually part of the Eyewitness series you can imagine what you are getting --- so ground breaking once, so predictable now. The text makes little concession to young readers --- on one spread we get such words as 'extensive', 'industrial', 'expansion', 'manufacture', 'intensified', 'stimulated', 'precision', 'mechanization', 'gaunt', 'industrialization' and so on. The pictures say 9-12 year olds; the text says something very different (or very bright 9-12 year olds). The time lines at the bottom of some of the pages are useful as is the Facts and Figures section at the back. The book attempts to cover a wide range of topics but all, necessarily, rather superficially. It is also full of typographical errors --- Lewis Carroll spelt incorrectly ('Carrol') and Robert Louis Stevenson as 'Stephenson' on p29 and in the index. Also on p29 we have 'Willkie' Collins and in the index Dr 'Banardo'. I wonder how many more there are I did not notice...

Reviewer: 
Steve Rosson
2
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