Vladimir Putin

Gr 6 Up—Designed for students seeking substantial information in an understandable format, this series focuses on prominent world leaders and gives a complete but condensed overview of their respective countries' recent politics and history. Each volume highlights key events that led to the titular figure's rise to leadership and the most current newsworthy information involving them. Captioned color photographs and maps appear on each spread. Readers will gain a sense of these dignitaries' lives before they entered the public eye through a few surprising anecdotes. However, the bulk of the content is dedicated to describing the complexities of various governments and global relationships. Unfortunately, the included critical thinking questions in each volume fail to dig deeply enough into many of the issues raised.