World War II Visual Encyclopedia

by D.K. Publishing

Made for children, this visual history of the Second World War profiles wartime leaders, soldiers, key battles, and the technological advances that influenced the course of the war.

Learn about the most cunning political strategists, the longest battles, the fastest fighter planes, and much more in this spectacular book for kids. Key information is available at a glance, with data boxes, facts and stats to dip into, and cutting-edge CGI technology that bring these infamous events to life.

Packed with profiles of people, places, and events, from Winston Churchill to Pearl Harbor, World War II: Visual Encyclopedia explores this historic event that shaped our world.

Genres: History, World War II, Historical, Education, World History, Nonfiction, Reference

208 pages, Hardcover

First published August 4, 2015

About the author

Dorling Kindersley (DK) is a British multinational publishing company specializing in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 62 languages. It is part of Penguin Random House, a consumer publishing company jointly owned by Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA and Pearson PLC. Bertelsmann owns 53% of the company and Pearson owns 47%.

Established in 1974, DK publishes a range of titles in genres including travel (including Eyewitness Travel Guides), arts and crafts, business, history, cooking, gaming, gardening, health and fitness, natural history, parenting, science and reference. They also publish books for children, toddlers and babies, covering such topics as history, the human body, animals and activities, as well as licensed properties such as LEGO, Disney and DeLiSo, licensor of the toy Sophie la Girafe. DK has offices in New York, London, Munich, New Delhi, Toronto and Melbourne.

Source: Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Fjóla · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book caught my son's eye at the Scholastic Book Fair and since he's been so obsessed with learning about World War II I presumed it would be right up his alley. A cursory look through its pages however dissuaded us from purchasing it, as it didn't seem the right book to provide my son with answers to all his "What? When? Where? How? Why?" questions. This book seems to focus on two things: First the "Who?" with individual one page entries on a few dozen "key" players from World War II, each providing a few sentences, a quotation and birth date facts. Unfortunately, a 7 year old is not likely to care about names or political personalities at this point.
Secondly, this book offers pictures and technical information about specific airplanes, weapons and machinery used in that war, and while I can definitely see the appeal this might have for boys (or girls) my son's age, in my personal view none of these are absolutely essential to an understanding of the historical events and as a side effect may unfortunately serve to glorify the war itself quite a bit.

Anyway, with this focus, the book fails to be all that useful as a general source of information about WWII. Additionally, I didn't care for the format and the typeface used within the book either (old typewriter fonts throughout the book), found it neither stimulating nor esthetically pleasing.

[The F · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic. I was going to give it a 4, but then realized "i hate nothing about this book". A good way to phrase this is that it simply is all you need to know. It's not over-analytical inches and centimeters or under-analytical Hourly History, it's absolutely just fine.

[Kristian Jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nicely illustrated book for my 8 year old son, he looks at it a lot but doesnt contain much history mostly snapshots.

[Valerie McEnroe · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a rather disappointing book from DK publishing. It's divided up into 4 sections: key players, military personnel, key events, and technology. The sections on military personnel and technology are a waste as far as I'm concerned. 20 pages of information on the military uniforms and gear worn by soldiers from the different countries. 50 pages on the tanks, aircraft, watercraft, artillery and weapons from the different countries. The section on key players is ok, but each person gets one page. There's just as much information about Adolf Hitler as there is about one of his generals. In my opinion this is way out of proportion.

The best section is the key events and battles, but even it's problematic. The amount of information is so limited that it doesn't satisfy. Most of each page is taken up by a photograph, not information. Incidentally, there is very little about the Holocaust in this book. The organizational method worked better for me in this section because it's divided into the three main war regions: Hitler and Europe, Mussolini and the Mediterranean, Hirohito and Japan. There's a page for each of the major battles. It's like three "mini" wars were going on at the same time, all with dictators trying to divide and conquer.

Final analysis is that this could have been much better, but it's still useful as a basic reference source. Large photographs dominate every page, the page layout is consistent, and the word count is low, so it's especially good for struggling readers. Every library should own a copy.

[Raving Redcoat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, it's exactly what the cover says... a visual encyclopedia of the Second World War. This is exactly the kind of thing you would give a middle schooler whose interest has been piqued, and who wants to learn more. There's even a few tidbits that adults who have studied the war might learn. Quite honestly, the only thing keeping this from five stars is the occasional historical error, most notably when a Jagdtiger tank destroyer is misidentified as a Tiger tank.

[Ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I find this book actually quite entertaining and educational, as it shows what the people, weapons, and technology looked like in the war. It gave wonderful, brief, and insightful explanations or descriptions, and gave great side notes/facts about each topic covered. I especially enjoyed the parts on the leaders, generals, and weapons as I have a knack for those kinds of subjects. My favorite topic had to on the B-17's and Sherman's, however. These two vehicles of war are two of the war's most notable and iconic weapons. In complete honesty, I enjoyed this book with great enthusiasm, as I am quite the sucker for things in WWII, and i would recommend this to any history buffs, or war buffs, or any of your friends who enjoy some facts about these kind of things. Overall, I give this a wonderful five stars and would love to see one about WWI, if they don't have one already

[Connor]

In the D-Day, June 6th 1944 the allies invaded the Normandy beaches. There were five diffrent beaches, Gold, Juino, Sward, utah and Omaha. Omaha was the deadliest beach out of all the beaches. The german Panther was very hard to kill. It had thick and sloped armor in the front. The only way you could really kill it with another tank is to shoot it on its side.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book for younger kids more than for adults

[anjel/juicy fruit snacks corona]

nice

[Nicholas carty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sooooooooooo good best book ever

[Julia Hoffman · Rating 5 out of 5]

very cool

I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves to learn about World War Two very good book. Also for kindle readings as well

[Steve Smits · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice concept. Visual depiction in photos and illustrations of key leaders, common soldiers, weaponry, and events.

[Kobi · Rating 5 out of 5]

As basic as a WWII history book can be, purchase it only if that's what you're looking for.

[Val · Rating 1 out of 5]

This reads like a text book and is very boring. It is a kids book but has words that are too big for kids and does not explain the information well at all. It does have good pictures I'll give it one star for that.