Taiwan

Enchantment of the World

by Barbara A. Somervill

Describes the geography, history, government, economy, and culture of Taiwan.

144 pages, Library Binding

First published February 1, 2014

About the author

Barbara Somervill is a professional writer who has been a magazine editor, journalist, and advertising copywriter for more than twenty years. Somervill is a member of the National Association of Female Executives, the Association of Women in Communications, and the International Documentary Association.

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
Many gorgeous photographs make this a very inviting book. I always worry about how quickly this will go out of date, however. There are lots of facts and figures that will change over time, some more rapidly than others. I was totally fascinated by the text as well and would love to visit Taiwan someday. If you have lots of financial resources for this type of broad overview, I recommend it, otherwise you can likely find current information and pictures online as well.

[BMPG · Rating 1 out of 5]

This version of Scholastic's Taiwan is not as accurate as the previous version written by David C. King (pub. 2006). This book omits a lot of vital information about the political history that was available in the previous book. It seems like it is trying rewrite history to skew toward pro-China. For example, the previous book has a section on "2-28" where 30,000 Taiwanese people were killed by Chinese troops. In this book by Somervill, the section is called "White Terror" which describes 12,000-22,000 Taiwanese were killed. That's quite a difference and less accurate. If you are a library or a school and going to carry one book about Taiwan - please carry Taiwan written by David C. King.