First, the one I liked the least — Breakfast on Mars. I actually liked it a lot, there are some great essays in this book. But, as examples of great essays for kids who have to write essays — I’m not so sure. They’re too good. Though as I type this, my problem might be that I really thought this book was focused at middle grade, not YA readers (because it’s middle grade kids that could really use the proper foundation for writing an essay.)
Next, The President Has Been Shot was good. Very cleanly written. No extraneous emotions for flowy words to try and push emotion. You either feel emotional while reading this book or you don’t. That’s a good thing. But, that also makes it a little dry and for kids a dry non-fiction book is very close to feeling like a text book. The photos were excellent. The diagrams were excellent. Very good book.
My favorite of the three, Imprisoned. There are not enough books about the Japanese internment during WW2 for people of any age but especially for kids. So — five stars! I loved the photos. I loved the clean writing. I did not love the complete absence of the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan. We just skipped right over that little fact and went straight to the release and aftermath. If you’re telling the hard, bad stuff then why skip that? Otherwise — excellent book. Everyone should read it (and more about this horrible period in our history.)