Juvenile Justice Books

This biography of Taft was written for advanced junior high or beginning high school students, but it's the best I've been able to find. It's a reasonable summary of Taft's extensive career in government, although the simple writing level does get old, and it brushes over a lot of the more advanced issues, like his controversy with Roosevelt and his philosophy and impact as a Chief Justice.

The book has 214 pages and is fairly large print.

As a children's book, it's probably quite good, but I evaluated it from an adult perspective.

If you're interested in his chief justiceship only, the book to look at is by Alpheus Thomas Mason.

In honor of Black History Month I encouraged my son to read this biography of the second black man to become a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. I would not recommend this book to any other readers, except for its unintentional humor.

The author never mentions one of the primary obstacles that Judge Thomas had to overcome, namely, that he was raised speaking the Georgia Sea Island dialect of Gullah, and had to learn English before attending school.

The author states that young Clarence Thomas approved of the community outreach of the Black Panther Party in California. No clarification is ever given to that statement, leaving one with the impression that a Justice of the Supreme Court condones the violent form of Marxism they espouse.

He states that the Senate "investigated" but never "decided" the Anita Hill controversy. Doesn't a confirmation vote of the majority of the Senate qualify as a "decision?

Perhaps the unusual tone of the biography is due to the author's sources. While he cites several issues of "Jet" magazine, he never includes the one source that would most accurately reveal the man and his beliefs; namely Judge Thomas' own eloquent record of his opinions as a Justice of the Supreme Court.

While the author did an adequate job of explaining how the Supreme Court works and provides other, basically factual information, his tone is suspicious and unenthusiastic. He obviously does not comprehend how an individual can be both conservative and a person of color.

One wonders why the author chose Clarence Thomas as a subject in a series of books called "People to Know." Ultimately, Judge Thomas is unknown to the author, who leaves his young readers with the highly inappropriate suggestion that the most powerful black man in America may have acheived his respected position by "selling his soul to the devil." I kid you not.

I DONATED THIS TO MY LIBRARY. I WAS NOT AWARE WHEN I ORDERED THIS BOOK
THAT IT WAS NON-FICTION. I HAVE ENJOYED MANY OF WILLIAM BERNHARDT'S
FICTION BOOKS AND WHEN I SAW THIS WAS "NEW" BY HIM, I ORDERED IT. IT WAS
NOT A BOOK I WAS INTERESTED IN READING.
MY LIBRARY WAS HAPPY TO RECEIVE IT, ESPECIALLY IN FEBRUARY, BLACK
HISTORY MONTH.

As a school project, Annie receives a baby doll that she must take care of. To her utter surprise, she finds out that it talks, and is really a wizard trapped in the form of a plastic doll. When she is sent to jail, and later to a special camp for `troubled children,' (because she wrote a story for her school newspaper) the doll accompanies her there, and on all the rest of her adventures.

Although the writing was OK, in my opinion this was not a good book at all. The plot was unrealistic and completely unbelievable, and the characters very shallow. The author has tried to mix fantasy and fiction and failed.

I never received this product from Gifts R Us. I contacted Amazon with a promise from them to have the issue resolved within 3 - 5 business days. Have yet to hear from them. I believe it has been six business days.

This is a children's book. If your kid needs or is interested in one, buy it, but don't be fooled by the incorrect (false) advertising of this book on amazon. You will be disappointed if you think you are getting, as I did, one of the first, properly researched boigraphies of our new Chif Justice.

I was very disappointed with this book. Robert Agnew made this book very dry and should have had another editor read this book.

Purchased this book July 28th. As of August 29th have not received it. Seller does not respond to emails.