High-school students who need a hand writing an analysis of a literary work or writer may want to check out the Today's Writers and Their Works series. This group is particularly multicultural: a white American man, a Mexican American woman, a Chinese man, and a British biracial woman. Each book begins with a biography of the author and then discusses major works with plot summaries and analysis of main characters. Kurt Vonnegut moves very rapidly through arguably the most interesting part of Vonnegut's life story s time as a POW t gives a sufficient overview of his motifs and themes and why he is considered postmodern. The series includes only a few, sometimes barely-related photographs but makes up for the lack of graphic interest with substance.

REIFF, Raychel Haugrud . Sandra Cisneros . ISBN 9781627121514 . LC 2010042466. ea vol: 144p. (Today's Writers and Their Works Series). bibliog. chron. ebook available. further reading. index. notes. photos. reprods. websites. Cavendish . 2013. lib. ed. $42.79. Gr 710 These titles provide biographical information along with analyses of the authors' major works. The print is clear and easy to read; each chapter has a few illustrations, although many are irrelevant or disappointingly generic. The content, however, is merely adequate, marred by repetition, awkward phrasing, and lack of depth. Readers wanting thorough, detailed examinations of Sandra Cisneros's and Kurt Vonnegut's writings can use SparkNotes (available free online) or CliffsNotes, though nothing can replace the immediacy and charm of the authors' own words. Cisneros's introduction to the 25th anniversary edition of The House on Mango Street, "A House of My Own," is an absolute gem and far more fluid and interesting than anything Reiff records. Reiff omits Cisneros's website in her "Further Information" section, and most of the websites Boon cites are incorrect. Ann W. Moore, Schenectady County Public Library, NY