Forming what amounts to a trilogy with Albert Marrin’s The Sea King: Sir Francis Drake and His Times (1995) and Ralph C. Staiger’s Thomas Harriot, Science Pioneer (not reviewed), this absorbing story of an adventurer’s adventurer takes readers from the brilliant, intrigue-ridden court of Queen Elizabeth to the unmapped reaches of North and South America, from dizzying heights of wealth and success to years of imprisonment and a traitor’s death. Aronson (Art Attack: A Short Cultural History of the Avant-Garde, 1998) portrays Ralegh as an upstart who rose high thanks to prodigious intellect, ability, and ambition, plus a “taste for total risks that brought the chance of greater glory,” but who was plagued, and ultimately killed, by his own misjudgments. With side excursions to Queen Elizabeth’s reign and “court of love,” the war with Spain, the predatory attitude with which European powers regarded the Americas, and the seductive legend of a vast hidden hoard of Inca treasure guarded by a golden man, “El Dorado,” Aronson not only details Ralegh’s career as soldier, sailor, explorer, writer, and schemer but consistently discusses causes, effects, and the broader significance of events large and small. Readers will be as riveted by his strong, dramatic writing as they are enlightened by his wide-ranging analyses. Illustrated with contemporary maps and prints, backed by capacious endnotes, this is as much a study of a culture at the threshold of the modern era as it is a tribute to one of the grand and grandly flawed figures who led the charge across that threshold. (index, timeline, cast of characters, author’s note, map, glossary, endnotes, bibliography) (Biography. 12+)
Pub Date: May 15, 2000
ISBN: 0-395-84827-X
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2000
Small but mighty necessary reading.
A miniature manifesto for radical queer acceptance that weaves together the personal and political.
Eli, a cis gay white Jewish man, uses his own identities and experiences to frame and acknowledge his perspective. In the prologue, Eli compares the global Jewish community to the global queer community, noting, “We don’t always get it right, but the importance of showing up for other Jews has been carved into the DNA of what it means to be Jewish. It is my dream that queer people develop the same ideology—what I like to call a Global Queer Conscience.” He details his own isolating experiences as a queer adolescent in an Orthodox Jewish community and reflects on how he and so many others would have benefitted from a robust and supportive queer community. The rest of the book outlines 10 principles based on the belief that an expectation of mutual care and concern across various other dimensions of identity can be integrated into queer community values. Eli’s prose is clear, straightforward, and powerful. While he makes some choices that may be divisive—for example, using the initialism LGBTQIAA+ which includes “ally”—he always makes clear those are his personal choices and that the language is ever evolving.
Small but mighty necessary reading. (resources) (Nonfiction. 14-18)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09368-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
A powerful reminder of a history that is all too timely today.
A beautifully heart-wrenching graphic-novel adaptation of actor and activist Takei’s (Lions and Tigers and Bears, 2013, etc.) childhood experience of incarceration in a World War II camp for Japanese Americans.
Takei had not yet started school when he, his parents, and his younger siblings were forced to leave their home and report to the Santa Anita Racetrack for “processing and removal” due to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066. The creators smoothly and cleverly embed the historical context within which Takei’s family’s story takes place, allowing readers to simultaneously experience the daily humiliations that they suffered in the camps while providing readers with a broader understanding of the federal legislation, lawsuits, and actions which led to and maintained this injustice. The heroes who fought against this and provided support to and within the Japanese American community, such as Fred Korematsu, the 442nd Regiment, Herbert Nicholson, and the ACLU’s Wayne Collins, are also highlighted, but the focus always remains on the many sacrifices that Takei’s parents made to ensure the safety and survival of their family while shielding their children from knowing the depths of the hatred they faced and danger they were in. The creators also highlight the dangerous parallels between the hate speech, stereotyping, and legislation used against Japanese Americans and the trajectory of current events. Delicate grayscale illustrations effectively convey the intense emotions and the stark living conditions.
A powerful reminder of a history that is all too timely today. (Graphic memoir. 14-adult)Pub Date: July 16, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-60309-450-4
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Top Shelf Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 4, 2019
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