Lewis offers an unconventional biography of the Mississippi blues legend. Poetry, paintings and the subject’s own lyrics tell the story of troubadour Robert Johnson, who died at the age of 27. He left behind a few photographs, a legacy of 29 recorded songs and a great deal of mystery swirling around his death. The poem “1911” depicts the historic background of his birth, others of the church and the death of his teenage bride. Johnson worked in the cotton fields and escaped into music, moving from harmonica and Jew’s harp to guitar. Lyrics to “Cross Road Blues,” “Sweet Home Chicago” and more tell their own stories. One legend has Johnson poisoned by the jealous boyfriend of a lover; another has him walking off a Greyhound bus and into the engulfing darkness of the night. Kelley’s beautiful brooding illustrations, multicolor monotypes using etching ink on plexiglass, add elegance to the mystique. A foreword and lengthy endnotes provide a more straightforward narrative of his life; a brief bibliography offers only adult resources. A stylish and artful work that will hold appeal for adults as well. (Picture book. 11+)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2006
ISBN: 1-56846-194-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Creative Editions/Creative Company
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2006
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish.
The dreary prospect of spending a lifetime making caskets instead of wonderful inventions prompts a young orphan to snatch up his little sister and flee. Where? To the circus, of course.
Fortunately or otherwise, John and 6-year-old Page join up with Boz—sometime human cannonball for the seedy Wandering Wayfarers and a “vertically challenged” trickster with a fantastic gift for sowing chaos. Alas, the budding engineer barely has time to settle in to begin work on an experimental circus wagon powered by chicken poop and dubbed (with questionable forethought) the Autopsy. The hot pursuit of malign and indomitable Great-Aunt Beauregard, the Coggins’ only living relative, forces all three to leave the troupe for further flights and misadventures. Teele spins her adventure around a sturdy protagonist whose love for his little sister is matched only by his fierce desire for something better in life for them both and tucks in an outstanding supporting cast featuring several notably strong-minded, independent women (Page, whose glare “would kill spiders dead,” not least among them). Better yet, in Boz she has created a scene-stealing force of nature, a free spirit who’s never happier than when he’s stirring up mischief. A climactic clutch culminating in a magnificently destructive display of fireworks leaves the Coggin sibs well-positioned for bright futures. (Illustrations not seen.)
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish. (Adventure. 11-13)Pub Date: April 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234510-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
A detailed, absorbing picture of Chinese-American culture in the 50's and 60's, of particular interest to Yep's many...
In a strong debut for the new "In My Own Words" series, the author of The Star Fisher (see below) portrays his own youth.
Brought up in San Francisco, where his parents managed for years to defend a mom-and-pop grocery against an increasingly rough non-Chinese neighborhood, Yep went to Chinatown to attend a Catholic school and to visit his grandmother. Always aware of belonging to several cultures, he is a keen observer who began early to "keep a file of family history" and who tellingly reveals how writing fiction, honestly pursued, can lead to new insights: in putting his own "mean" teacher into one book, he began for the first time to understand her viewpoint. He divides his account topically, rather than chronologically, with chapters on the store, Chinatown, family tradition, being an outsider, etc., concluding with his college years ("Culture Shock") and some later experiences especially related to his writing. Always, Yep is trying to integrate his many "pieces" ("raised in a black neighborhood...too American to fit into Chinatown and too Chinese to fit in elsewhere...the clumsy son of the athletic family..."), until he discovers that writing transforms him "from being a puzzle to a puzzle solver."
A detailed, absorbing picture of Chinese-American culture in the 50's and 60's, of particular interest to Yep's many admirers or would-be writers. (Autobiography. 11-15)Pub Date: May 1, 1991
ISBN: 0688137016
Page Count: 117
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1991
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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