A delectably loving tribute to a pioneering entrepreneur.
The author grows to appreciate the ingenuity of her Taiwanese grandfather.
When Cheng was a child, her Agong carried a bag of coins in his pocket; that simple bag tells a story of “joyful jingles, sultry summers, and fresh frozen fruit.” It all began in 1965, when Agong was a young man making a living selling pork. As the demand for pork dwindled, he wondered what else he could stock in his empty freezer. Noticing the scorching summer heat, he had an idea and started traveling the country, speaking with farmers harvesting guava, pineapple, star fruit, and more. Slicing the fruits and blending them together with bits of sugar, Agong experimented with ways to package the frozen delights, finally landing on colorful pouches that “gleamed like jewels in red, white and yellow as they quickly turned to scrumptious fruit pops.” The innovation didn’t stop there. Agong realized that outdoor food vendors often had difficulty being heard over the cacophony of honking vehicles, so he held a competition, inviting composers to devise a creative jingle to “cut through the rumbling noise of Taipei.” As Cheng brings her tale to a close, she notes that her grandfather’s legacy lives on as three generations of family sing the tune at his funeral. Her gently affectionate narrative flows naturally, marked by alliterative, elegant language. Mineker’s warmly textured illustrations rely on soft lines and bold colors.
A delectably loving tribute to a pioneering entrepreneur. (Picture-book biography. 5-8)Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593617755
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Rocky Pond Books/Penguin
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses.
An NBA star pays tribute to the influence of his grandfather.
In the same vein as his Long Shot (2009), illustrated by Frank Morrison, this latest from Paul prioritizes values and character: “My granddad Papa Chilly had dreams that came true,” he writes, “so maybe if I listen and watch him, / mine will too.” So it is that the wide-eyed Black child in the simply drawn illustrations rises early to get to the playground hoops before anyone else, watches his elder working hard and respecting others, hears him cheering along with the rest of the family from the stands during games, and recalls in a prose afterword that his grandfather wasn’t one to lecture but taught by example. Paul mentions in both the text and the backmatter that Papa Chilly was the first African American to own a service station in North Carolina (his presumed dream) but not that he was killed in a robbery, which has the effect of keeping the overall tone positive and the instructional content one-dimensional. Figures in the pictures are mostly dark-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-81003-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
A picture book more than worthy of sharing the shelf with Alan Schroeder and Jerry Pinkney’s Minty (1996) and Carole Boston...
A memorable, lyrical reverse-chronological walk through the life of an American icon.
In free verse, Cline-Ransome narrates the life of Harriet Tubman, starting and ending with a train ride Tubman takes as an old woman. “But before wrinkles formed / and her eyes failed,” Tubman could walk tirelessly under a starlit sky. Cline-Ransome then describes the array of roles Tubman played throughout her life, including suffragist, abolitionist, Union spy, and conductor on the Underground Railroad. By framing the story around a literal train ride, the Ransomes juxtapose the privilege of traveling by rail against Harriet’s earlier modes of travel, when she repeatedly ran for her life. Racism still abounds, however, for she rides in a segregated train. While the text introduces readers to the details of Tubman’s life, Ransome’s use of watercolor—such a striking departure from his oil illustrations in many of his other picture books—reveals Tubman’s humanity, determination, drive, and hope. Ransome’s lavishly detailed and expansive double-page spreads situate young readers in each time and place as the text takes them further into the past.
A picture book more than worthy of sharing the shelf with Alan Schroeder and Jerry Pinkney’s Minty (1996) and Carole Boston Weatherford and Kadir Nelson’s Moses (2006). (Picture book/biography. 5-8)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2047-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
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