Riyadh Ajab Ajab itibaren Kaushal1A, Uttar Pradesh 246736, India
It's amazing that this rambling version, with little significance to some major events of history, was awarded the Newbery Medal. Thankfully, we have some wonderful children's literature today that is worthy of the medal. Hendrick Van Loon attempts to capture The Story of Mankind for his grandchildren and future generations. Too bad the writing is horrible and the words are boring. I struggled with giving this book two stars. I looked back at the books I gave one star to, and those books were REALLY bad. I must say that Van Loon had a passion for history and tried his best (?) to impart his wisdom and knowledge...it is just that no self-respecting kid would ever pick this book up with the intention of reading it (maybe to throw it at an annoying sibling but never to read it). At least now I have fully begun my quest to read all the Newbery Award Winning Books. I am confident each and every one of them will be better than this one.
I feel that presenting the book's topic deserves 5 stars (I don't know about any other books that discusses this issue, so Louv deserves lots of credit for bringing up the issue), but after a few chapters the reading gets boring which would warrant a 1 star rating.