The Harlem Hellfighters by Max BrooksMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I'm not really a big fan of graphic novels, but I bought this for my husband - who loves comic books & history, seemed like a perfect fit. I love history so I read it too. The topic is really interesting - the Harlem Hellfighters, a little known group of black soldiers from World War I (I specifically did not use African American - because some of the men were from Caribbean islands). The story is very gritty and it focuses mostly on the racial issues of the time period and the race issues faced by the soldiers - which left a lot of the war story untold. I learned a great deal, but at times I felt like the story was demonizing all white people and in some ways diminishing the heroic actions of the black soldiers by implying their only motivation was to kill white people. The book does do a tremendous job of showing the ugly side of war, the horrible conditions and the brutality of combat. I really like the concept of using graphic novels to teach about history, but I wish this book was a bit more balanced in its approach.
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