Boundaries: How the Mason-Dixon Line Settled a Family Feud & Divided a Nation - ADULTS

Walker, Sally M.  Boundaries: How the Mason-Dixon Line Settled a Family Feud & Divided a Nation, 182 p. NON-FICTION.  Candlewick, 2014.  $25.  Content: G.  

Boundaries are artificial lines that divide friends, neighbors, enemies and countries.  Religion and boundaries are irrevocably intertwined in most of the disputes (all of the disputes?) that have driven conflict around the world.  Walker details the boundaries and the religious disputes that lead to the creation of the Mason-Dixon Line and the divide between the North and the South in America, and a major part of the American Civil War.  

Walker’s book is just way too much for most students to care about or read.  Too much detail, too much text, not enough illustration.  I have loved a raft of non-fiction books, but a child will never read this one from cover to cover.  The only use I can see for this in school is for a teacher for background information, who might use a few excerpts about drawing boundaries and the complications caused by them.  It is brilliant, it is well-written, it is extremely informative and it is just too much book.  

ADULTS.  Cindy, Library Teacher