There are few more con­tro­ver­sial actors in mod­ern Israeli his­to­ry than the cur­rent Prime Min­is­ter, Ariel Sharon. In this suc­cinct­ly writ­ten, well-researched biog­ra­phy by a skill­ful non-fic­tion writer, Sharon’s per­son­al­i­ty, moti­va­tions, suc­cess­es and fail­ures are probed. From his lone­ly child­hood on a kib­butz near Tel Aviv to his sur­pris­ing deci­sion to dis­man­tle set­tle­ments that he had been instru­men­tal in build­ing, Sharon’s per­son­al life plus his mil­i­tary and polit­i­cal careers are dis­cussed fac­tu­al­ly and non-judg­men­tal­ly, allow­ing read­ers to form their own con­clu­sions based on the mate­r­i­al pre­sent­ed. Well-cap­tioned black-and-white pho­tographs, maps, and fact box­es aug­ment the infor­ma­tion; a time line, list of sources, read­ings and web­sites, and an index com­plete this well-orga­nized book. Add this to that short list of impar­tial and fac­tu­al non-fic­tion works about Israel. Rec­om­mend­ed for ages 11 – 15.