Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

School Library Journal Review

Gr 9 Up‘This slim volume addresses the key issues of smoking: regulation, banning, secondhand smoke, taxation, and addiction. The first 5 chapters present anti-smoking arguments that are heavily footnoted, while chapters 6 through 10 take the opposing viewpoint and are not footnoted. All 10 articles have been published or presented prior to inclusion here. The solid information and convincing arguments will prove helpful for research-paper writers and debaters. The small, dense print is broken up only by black-and-white charts and graphs; the overall effect is gray. The index and bibliography are extensive. A four-page listing of organizations‘complete with each one's address, phone number, and primary focus‘make this title worthy of purchase.‘Valerie Childress, J.W. Holloway Middle School, Whitehouse, TX (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Gr. 8-12. Raging controversies of the mid-1990s are the subjects of this new At Issue series. The questions are of crucial interest to teens. Each book is an anthology of many articles, extreme and moderate, on the various sides of the issues. Doctors call for smoking to be regulated; an academic warns that bans on smoking threaten individual rights. Pat Buchanan calls for a suspension of immigration; La Resistencia calls for an end to ethnic cleansing. The articles are uncut, and the material isn't easy, but the editors provide a general introduction and a brief summary above each entry, with excellent notes, bibliographies, and organizations to contact for further information. This is a scaled-down version of the publisher's popular Opposing Viewpoints series: the textbook study questions, section divisions, and discussion guides have been cut out. The covers are attractive, the price is low, and teens will pick these up and dip into the articles for personal interest as well as for classroom and library research. The arguments reflect what's being discussed in the country now on talk shows, in Congress, and in school classrooms and hallways. ~--Hazel Rochman