Book Review Digest (Index Table Z1219 .C95)
An index that covers about 80 periodicals, Book Review Digest contains excerpts from  reviews.  It also indicates the length of each review and gives you a notion of content and whether or not the reviewer favors the book.  With this, you do not have to consult the reviews but can make judgments about a title by merely reading Book Review Digest.  It is published monthly in paperback.  The monthly issues are consolidated every year into a bound volume.  These bound volumes contain an index for each year.  In order to be listed in Book Review Digest, non-fiction books must have had two or more reviews appear in the periodicals indexed.  Fiction books must have had four or more reviews.  Simply put, if the book you are searching for is relatively obscure, you may not find it in Book Review Digest.  A sample entry of the Book Review Digest is as follows:
Author and title of the book

Publisher and date of publication

 

Summary of the book

 

First review excerpt

 

 

Second review excerpt

Davey, Thomas A., 1954-.  A generation divided; German children and the Berlin Wall; [by] Thomas Davey.  155p.  pl col pl $29.95.

                1987 Duke University Press

305.2     1. Children-Germany.  2. Child Psychology

ISBN 0-8223-0729-4                                              LC 87-13497

This "is an inquiry into the lives of children of similar, if not identical historical and cultural heritage who today find themselves in…opposed ideological worlds, regarding one another across…the Berlin Wall.  Under these circumstances, what are significant factors that contribute to the development of children of feelings of loyalty to or alienation from their nation?  How do they view not only themselves, but the ‘other’ Germans as well?…Thomas Davey conducted interviews with children on both sides of the Wall, participated in their daily lives, collected their drawings, [and] talked with their teachers and families."  {Publisher's note} Bibliography.  Index. 

"Davey {City University, London} examined and recorded the moral and political subtleties of [the children's] lives, producing a dramatic portrait of how this generation responds to a serious and continuing political confrontation.  Highly recommended for psychiatrists, psychologists, social scientists, undergraduates, and general readers interested in the way political tensions shape the developing personality."
                   Choice 25:1178 Mr  '88.  C.R. Harper (150w)

"Since its construction in August 1961, the Berlin Wall has been the most visible symbol of the division of Germany.  The presence of the Wall as well as the proximity of ‘the other’ confronts children growing up in East or West Berlin with an extremely complex political climate.  Davey's book is a sensitive, balanced, and fascinating inquiry into the lives of children (ages ten to twelve) who struggle to make sense of the social and political world they inhabit.  Written in a clear and lively style, this is of interest to layperson and specialist alike.

Libr J 112:123 D  '87.  Ulrike S. Rettig (110w)           


NOTE:  The "citation to review" is listed below each review excerpt.

(The first review shown above appeared in Choice, volume 25, page 1178, in March 1988.  The review was written by C. R. Harper and is 150 words long.)
To find the full text of a review described in the Book Review Digest, use the citation to see if the library at HCC carries the periodical that this review was published in.  To do this, look in the black loose-leaf binder titled Henderson Community College Hartfield Library Magazines.  This binder lists the magazines and journals that the Hartfield Library receives in either the paper copy or full-text on one of the electronic databases.