Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Terrorist: Gavrilo Princip, the Assassin who Ignited World War I by Henrik Rehr -NO


Rehr, Henrik Terrorist: Gavrilo Princip, the Assassin who Ignited World War I 32 pgs Graphic Universe (Lerner), 2015. $12.00 Content: Language: G (0 swears); Mature Content: PG13 Violence: PG13 GRAPHIC NOVEL

This is the story of Gavrilo Princip, assassin of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in 1914. Not very much is known about him or his motives, so the author fills in the blanks. Gavrilo was from a village in Serbia and was unsuccessful in school, instead falling in with a crowd of malcontents, revolutionaries, and some would call terrorists. It is thought that the assassination he did was what set off World War I.

This is a very long, very dark, very confusing graphic novel. Because of the art style and the darkness, I could hardly tell the characters apart. There is some assumption of background knowledge surrounding this region and its politics, so I was completely at a loss with why these men were so unhappy and how they were being subjugated. The big bad event that set off a death toll in the millions, was anti-climactic since there wasn’t enough information for me to understand exactly why and how that set off World War I. Just not enough information to help a high school student understand the complexity of World War I.

HS – NO Reviewer: Stephanie Elementary School Librarian & Author.

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