Discoveries: D-Day

This is one of those picture books that includes enough text to give you context for what you're seeing, and tries to inform you about the subject in a very general way without burdening you with too much minutae. In this it generally succeeds, but more knowledgeable readers should beware: there's nothing original in the thinking here. Kemp's merely interested in telling the story in as smooth a fashion as possible. He has about 130 pages to do it, with another 40 or so at the back for passages from various accounts by participants. The book is full of illustrations, including a fold-out panorama of the beaches with planes flying around in the foreground, and pics of the Bayeux/D-Day tapestry done some years ago. This is a good book for a kid in junior high who wants to know about the battle, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone further up the ladder, unless they just wanted a cursory book on the subject.

For such a slim volume, there was a LOT of information inside. Obviously we studied D-Day and Normandy in History class, but never this much in-depth; all the disparate operations related to the landing of American, British and Canadian troops in France were covered. I came away from the book with a sense of "Whoa. Just...whoa," becuase it's truly mind-boggling how much planning went into D-Day. As far as studying history goes, I mostly prefer reading about the political events rather than individual military ones, so I often had to re-read pages to get a grasp on what was going on. Luckily, English author Anthony Kemp (whose writing revealed a tremendous respect for all the Allied forces who fought) provided plenty of pictures and maps, and best of all, original sources. Letters and personal writings from heads of state, generals, NCO's and civilians alike were provided in the back, which I found to be the best part of the book.

This book was in my opinion the equivalant of the bible. If you enjoy reading well written and beautifully illustrated books then you are in heaven with this book. Has alot of very good information and is very helpful in the researching field.

We used this book as our starting point when our family toured the Normandy beaches several years ago. Since that time we have read numerous books on the invasion. However, as a concise, informative basic reference work on the invasion, this is one we refer to time and time again. The book provides a brief (a little over 100 pages) description of the events that led up to the D-Day invasion and as well as the D-Day invasion and events that lead to the breakout. It also includes observations from participants in the invasion, including Generals Bradley and Montgomery. Maps and excellent pictures complete the book.