Treaties, Trenches, Mud, and Blood

A great Kid's level history of the 1914-1918 World War of a century ago.

Lets face two facts: 1) Kids in grades 7-12 do not like having to learn history(their loss, as they all realize when they are 30). 2) Schools in this Millenial world or newer have cut the hearts out of the schooling curriculums in lieu of teaching to "basic achievement" and "Standards for Graduation"(so called proficiency testing) that has to be repeated frequently that the "contact time" for students to get history, language, "the Humanities" has been axed in those curriculum cuts (the Nation will be the loser here...it's already showing). And teachers will take the wrap for the kids not leaning! (I'm a retired public school (history) teacher.) This book, and the others by author Nathan Hale (and yes, the story of secret agent/spy Nathan Hale is utilized in the text and background for each title in the growing series) please me to no end. They are written, aimed at a kid's reading level and makes the history being taught (yes, being taught) enjoyable to the adolescent reader (or any age reader, for that matter). Cartoon /comic style illustrations (very well rendered) in pen and ink draw the eye and the characters tell the (hi)story with no haughtiness that might be found in a dedicated history book of the same topic. It's good, because the readers are teaching themselves, and that sort of helps make up for the deficiencies in schools as described above. I've seen a few of these books, and really like them. They would easily make a great child's personal library collection. Some are worthy of adult collections! An example being the telling of the story of the WWII Doolittle Tokyo Air Raid. There are quite a few more, and I urge you to consider these books as gifts to any adolescent reader or adult with an interest in the subject matter of the book or history in general. My only gripe so far is with this particular title! The author/illustrator decided to tell the historical path of WWI using animals instead of humans...the animals are dressed as the warring soldi...