Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr had much in common, yet their feud led to a duel that left one dead and the other forever discredited. Both had difficult childhoods, both fought heroically in the American Revolution and both rose to high positions in the new government. Hamilton was a signer of the Constitution and secretary of the treasury under George Washington. Burr ran for president in 1800 and tied Jefferson but had to settle for the vice presidency after the House of Representatives chose Jefferson. Fradin paces his tale deliberately, alternating his accounts of his principles’ parallel ascent to power. Young readers may have trouble following the intricacies of the history, but the drama of the duel, beautifully rendered in ink with watercolor and gouache and stretched out over several page turns, will catch their attention. Day’s illustrations, reminiscent of Robert Andrew Parker’s, perfectly capture the drama, and the spacious page design heightens the effect. A nice follow-up to the pair’s collaboration, Let It Begin Here! (2005). (bibliography, map) (Informational picture book. 7-11)
Pub Date: July 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8027-9583-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Walker
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2008
Strong rhythms and occasional full or partial rhymes give this account of P.T. Barnum’s 1884 elephant parade across the newly opened Brooklyn Bridge an incantatory tone. Catching a whiff of public concern about the new bridge’s sturdiness, Barnum seizes the moment: “’I will stage an event / that will calm every fear, erase every worry, / about that remarkable bridge. / My display will amuse, inform / and astound some. / Or else my name isn’t Barnum!’” Using a rich palette of glowing golds and browns, Roca imbues the pachyderms with a calm solidity, sending them ambling past equally solid-looking buildings and over a truly monumental bridge—which soars over a striped Big Top tent in the final scene. A stately rendition of the episode, less exuberant, but also less fictionalized, than Phil Bildner’s Twenty-One Elephants (2004), illustrated by LeUyen Pham. (author’s note, resource list) (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2005
ISBN: 0-618-44887-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2005
The author of Cod’s Tale (2001) again demonstrates a dab hand at recasting his adult work for a younger audience. Here the topic is salt, “the only rock eaten by human beings,” and, as he engrossingly demonstrates, “the object of wars and revolutions” throughout recorded history and before. Between his opening disquisition on its chemical composition and a closing timeline, he explores salt’s sources and methods of extraction, its worldwide economic influences from prehistoric domestication of animals to Gandhi’s Salt March, its many uses as a preservative and industrial product, its culinary and even, as the source for words like “salary” and “salad,” its linguistic history. Along with lucid maps and diagrams, Schindler supplies detailed, sometimes fanciful scenes to go along, finishing with a view of young folk chowing down on orders of French fries as ghostly figures from history look on. Some of Kurlansky’s claims are exaggerated (the Erie and other canals were built to transport more than just salt, for instance), and there are no leads to further resources, but this salutary (in more ways than one) micro-history will have young readers lifting their shakers in tribute. (Picture book/nonfiction. 8-10)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-399-23998-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2006
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