A solid introduction to gangsters and bootleggers during the 20s for kids. It includes pictures, mini-bios, lots of general information, a slang dictionary, and a great bibliography. There's also a couple of DIY kids' projects. A good book for any library, student interested in this subject, or just for a fun read.

LT Early Reviewer ( )

Top Secret Files Gangsters and Bootleggers explores the history of gangsters and bootleggers. Covering the twenties and thirties, the format of the book includes many topics, written in about 3 page sections, along with pictures. Everything from Al Capone, to flappers, to bootleggers, to twenties slang, readers will be fascinated exploring the world of speakeasies and gangsters. The book also includes activities related to the topic such as building your own rumrunner and creating a wanted poster.

While I appreciate a lot of the book and think it is fun, some of the people I think were major players of the era were barely covered. I know not everyone can be covered, it's ridiculous to me that there is not more than a sentence about John Dillinger. The only way he is covered is by talking about his gun moll and what happened to her. And nothing about the Barker-Karpis gang or Baby Face Nelson. I think in an effort to cover a variety of topics some of the main players were unfortunately left out. ( )

This would be a great book for an advanced elementary reader up to eleven or twelve. It´s a good, readable, consistently interesting and exciting collection of bite-sized facts and stories about the Prohibition era. Because of the subject matter, some of the content might worry parents of children toward the younger end of the range (though I'm sure the children would eat it up) and some of the other material writes around the historical truth - especially with the more sexual elements - in slightly awkward ways.

The design in the book - the Art Deco flourishes, and the way the sections are arranged against each other - was great, though I was't very impressed by the bright-orange-on-pale blue text in a lot of the sidebars and captions, from a readability point of view.

Activities and crafts are scattered through the book. Their quality varies. Some of them - like mazes and wordfinds - are pretty uninspired, and also require writing in the book, which I don´t like in a book that's otherwise set up to be re-read. Some of the others were really good, however.

I will be passing it on to my more appropriately-aged cousins without hesitation. ( )

'm very familiar with this subject matter-having researched it myself for a novel I wrote. But I still learned something new: NASCAR was invented by bootleggers! ( )

In "Gangster's and Bootleggers" Stephanie Bearce has turned out another great little book in her "Top Secret Files" series. It is full of fascinating facts and stories about the "Roaring 20s" time period in American History. I don't know anyone who has not experienced some fascination with John Dillinger or Al Capone but have you ever heard of "The man in the Green Hat", Bugs Moran, Lucky Lucania, Cleo Lythgoe, or Kathryn Thorne just to name a few. Stephanie covers a host of both well known and lesser known criminals of the period. She also covers the lingo and slang of the Prohibition Period that was popular at the time. Crime fighters of the period like Elliot Ness and the Untouchables and the team of Izzy and Moe are also given space in her book. This book is geared for younger readers and as such I would recommend adult guidance in discussing the consequences that go along with many of the lifestyles described. This book is a good read for older readers too as it is full of many little know facts of the Prohibition Period. ( )