Cap­stone’s new series, Eye­wit­ness to World War II, con­sists of four books: Hiroshi­ma and Nagasa­ki, Japan­ese Amer­i­can Intern­ment, Kristall­nacht, and Pearl Har­bor. Kristall­nacht details the his­to­ry of that ter­ri­fy­ing event first through the eyes of a young Jew­ish boy, then delves deep­er into the back­ground of the time, includ­ing dis­cus­sions of Ger­man anti-Semi­tism, Hitler’s rise to pow­er, con­cen­tra­tion and death camps, the eco­nom­ic sit­u­a­tion of the era, sanc­tions against the Jews, the Kinder­trans­port, the rise of the ghet­tos, and the war and its aftermath.

The text is accom­pa­nied by side­bars, maps, dia­grams, charts, and pho­tographs that make the his­to­ry acces­si­ble and easy to under­stand. Back­mat­ter includes a time­line, a glos­sary, sug­ges­tions for fur­ther read­ing and research, a list of crit­i­cal think­ing research ques­tions, a bib­li­og­ra­phy, and an index.

Use­ful for at-home read­ing but pri­mar­i­ly designed for the class­room or library, this series will find a help­ful and much-used place on the his­to­ry edu­ca­tion shelf.