Synopses & Reviews
In the early 1940s, young women enlisted for peacetime duty as U.S. Army nurses. But when the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 blasted the United States into World War II, 101 American Army and Navy nurses serving in the Philippines were suddenly treating wounded and dying soldiers while bombs exploded all around them. The women served in jerry-rigged jungle hospitals on the Bataan Peninsula and in underground tunnels on Corregidor Island. Later, when most of them were captured by the Japanese as prisoners of war, they suffered disease and near-starvation for three years.
Pure Grit is a story of sisterhood and suffering, of tragedy and betrayal, of death and life. The women cared for one another, maintained discipline, and honored their vocation to nurse anyone in needandmdash;all 101 coming home alive.
The book is illustrated with archival photographs and includes an index, glossary, and timeline.
Praise for Pure Grit
STARRED REVIEW
andquot;Details of many nursesandrsquo; individual trials combine to form a memorable portrayal of their shared experience, one which will emotionally impact readers.andquot;
--Booklist, starred review
andquot;Primary source materials, especially the movingly matter-of-fact recollections of several of the nurses and personal snapshots, bring the story to life.andquot;
--Kirkus Reviews
andquot;Farrell doesnandrsquo;t spare her young readers any grim details . . . She includes the challenges these women faced and the joy they felt on returning home. As awful as history can be, now might be the right time to introduce the next generation to this important period.andquot;
--The Washington Post
andquot;In addition to photographs and helpful maps, the page layouts include facsimiles of the nursesandrsquo; letters and diaries. Young readers who enjoyed Tanya Lee Stoneandrsquo;s Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream will also appreciate this story of courageous women whose story was nearly forgotten.andquot;
--School Library Journal
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Review
"Veteran adult historian Ambrose (D-Day June 6, 1944; Citizen Soldiers) hits the mark with this patriotic photo-survey of America's involvement in WWII. His highly visual and textually concise approach make clear the giant scope of a war that truly spanned the world....Haunting and powerful full-page and inset photographs bring each subject to life, including Joe Rosenthal's famous flag-raising after the battle of Iwo Jima....The format succeeds in allowing Ambrose to flash back and forth between events around the globe, creating a heartpounding urgency." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Historian Ambrose's handsomely illustrated overview, a chronological series of one-page essays covering everything from the origins of World War II through the Marshall Plan...[is] an excellent balance between the big picture and the humanizing details, well supported by fact boxes, tinted photographs, and battlefield maps that are both simple and clear....Teens growing up in a world some feel is steeped in irony and detachment may find the writing occasionally heavy-handed...but sophisticated readers will learn as much about the times from Ambrose's tone as from the history itself." Booklist (starred review)
Review
"In what is plainly a packager's distillation of far better work by the noted historian, what should have been exciting and heart-stirring thanks to strong photographs is reduced to a hop, skip, and a jump due to a weak text....The photos are telling; the text, though, skimps on details, facts, and conclusions that the uninformed young reader needs....[F]ar too often what are contained in the text are trite phrases and worn-out images." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Ambrose's books both reflect and have intensified and helped to shape a self-aggrandizing mythology of World War II. Readers are promised on the jacket flap that The Good Fight is a 'chronicle of World War II.' But what young readers get is a solipsistic and egregiously skewed history....[T]he great problem with Ambrose's books especially this one is that they fail to treat history as tragic, ironic, paradoxical, and ambiguous. If readers are old enough to study an event that involved the deaths of more than 60 million people, they are old enough to learn that one studies history not to simplify issues but to illuminate their complexities." Benjamin Schwartz, The Atlantic Monthly (read the entire Atlantic review)
Synopsis
Stephen E. Ambrose, one of the finest historians of our time, has written an extraordinary chronicle of World War II for young readers. From Japanese warplanes soaring over Pearl Harbor, dropping devastation from the sky, to the against-all-odds Allied victory at Midway, to the Battle of the Bulge during one of the coldest winters in Europe's modern history, to the tormenting decision to bomb Nagasaki and Hiroshima with atomic weapons, andlt;Iandgt;The Good Fightandlt;/Iandgt; brings the most horrific -- and most heroic -- war in history to a new generation in a way that's never been done before. andlt;BRandgt; In addition to Ambrose's accounts of major events during the war, personal anecdotes from the soldiers who were fighting on the battlefields, manning the planes, commanding the ships -- stories of human triumph and tragedy -- bring the war vividly to life. andlt;BRandgt; Highlighting Ambrose's narrative are spectacular color and black-and-white photos, and key campaign and battlefield maps. Stephen E. Ambrose's singular ability to take complex and multifaceted information and get right to its essence makes andlt;Iandgt;The Good Fightandlt;/Iandgt; the book on World War II for kids.
Synopsis
Stephen E. Ambrose, one of the finest historians of our time, has written an extraordinary chronicle of World War II for young readers. From Japanese warplanes soaring over Pearl Harbor, dropping devastation from the sky, to the against-all-odds Allied victory at Midway, to the Battle of the Bulge during one of the coldest winters in Europe's modern history, to the tormenting decision to bomb Nagasaki and Hiroshima with atomic weapons, The Good Fight brings the most horrific -- and most heroic -- war in history to a new generation in a way that's never been done before.
In addition to Ambrose's accounts of major events during the war, personal anecdotes from the soldiers who were fighting on the battlefields, manning the planes, commanding the ships -- stories of human triumph and tragedy -- bring the war vividly to life.
Highlighting Ambrose's narrative are spectacular color and black-and-white photos, and key campaign and battlefield maps. Stephen E. Ambrose's singular ability to take complex and multifaceted information and get right to its essence makes The Good Fight the book on World War II for kids.
About the Author
Stephen E. Ambrose is one of the preeminent historians of our generation, and his books are some of the most revered, and best-selling, historical titles in publishing history. They include Citizen Soldiers; Undaunted Courage; Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West; D-Day June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II, and the recently published Nothing Like It in the World. All have been New York Times bestsellers. He is the founder of the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans, and has won the Abraham Lincoln Literary Award, the Will Rogers Memorial Award, and the Distinguished Civilian Service Medal from the Department of Defense. He lives in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and Helena, Montana.