Peter Sis's The Wall, was noted as a Caldecott Honor book in 2008. I wanted my collection of reading to be as diverse as possible so I decided to read The Wall since its subtitle was Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain. Honestly, the title grabbed my attention. I liked the relation to history in this book that was based on a boy who grew up in the middle of Europe at the start of the Cold War. The memoirs described how people were expected to follow rules of leadership and the illustrations supported this. I found the side margins to be the most interesting. Actual markings of history are outlined there.
There is a lot going on in this book. Excerpts from the author's journal from 1954-1977 were scattered throughout the book. On each page the author's words are stationed underneath a very large, detailed illustration. Along side of of the illustrations are descriptions of what historical moment is being depicted. The entire book seemed very overwhelming to me. Even though the content was quite educational, it lacked organization.
If I were instructing students about this historical time period, I would think twice about using this book as a resource. I'm sure that there are books on this topic that are better suited for young adults.
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