Monday, September 1, 2014

Tommy's Kit




Order Now
Above is a sample of what I consider to be one of the finest illustrated reference works on the war. I found this on a website for homeschooling families. It is marketed as a work for young people in the 8–12-year range, but it is an excellent work for hard-core enthusiasts of any age. It was produced drawing on the Imperial War Museum resources so it is heavily British and Western Front-centric, but its main problem is that at 72 pages, it's too damn short. Back to the young audience for a moment. I think this would be a fine gift for a student whose interest has been recently stirred by the recent Centennial events in the news.

6 comments:

  1. It would be very helpful for this and all other book reviews to have included information on price, publisher or vendor's address, ISBN, format and availability.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, of course. There is a link here, just above the comments, to the right of the text.

      Delete
    2. The books referenced all seem to be shown with clickable icons to get that information. Look at the book shown to right of the text.

      Delete
  2. All the DK series are excellent. Inspired by Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, my 5-year old grandson triumphantly tracked down the tank featured in that movie, using his DK World War I book. By the way, in the posted illustration, the "button stick" is NOT used to fasten buttons, it's a shield to protect the uniform from brass polish, while clustering all the buttons in one continuous string for ease of polishing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A "button stick", what genius thought this one up for a combat kit; I love the ammonia smell of brass polish in the morning? I suspect Jerry did too; and the shinny glint going over the top provided extra target registration. Poor Tommy Atkins gets creamed so the brass hats in the rear can be proud of a proper military spit and polish bearing?

      Delete