Unenticing as an invitation to explore either Middle Earth or the mind behind it.
A lifeless life of the great philologist and creator of “secondary worlds.”
With eye-dulling granularity Carr turns Tolkien’s story into a recitation of family members and religious conversions, childhood and later experiences of debatable significance, academic colleagues and obscurely named literary clubs, changes of address, and sound-bite quotes. It all passes steadily into and out of view, leaving readers only the very briefest of plot summaries and bare glimpses of the uncommon complexity of his imagined languages and worlds or the immense range of literary and cultural traditions on which he drew. Eschewing nuance of any sort, the author also offers no comments about his sometimes-fustian writing style and likewise leaves the sexist and racist themes in his fantasies unexamined. The illustrations mix more film stills and recent art into the period photos than examples of Tolkien’s own lively paintings or drawings, and the assorted set of enrichment activities runs to such uninviting projects as making mushroom toast or writing a book review. The backmatter also seems catch as catch can, as the lists of resources include audiobooks but no visual media despite all those stills and leave out the separate editions of most of Tolkien’s shorter books.
Unenticing as an invitation to explore either Middle Earth or the mind behind it. (glossary, timeline, endnotes, index) (Biography. 11-13)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64160-346-1
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
Logically pointing out that the American cowboy archetype didn’t spring up from nowhere, Sandler, author of Cowboys (1994) and other volumes in the superficial, if luxuriously illustrated, “Library of Congress Book” series, looks back over 400 years of cattle tending in North America. His coverage ranges from the livestock carried on Columbus’s second voyage to today’s herding-by-helicopter operations. Here, too, the generous array of dramatic early prints, paintings, and photos are more likely to capture readers’ imaginations than the generality-ridden text. But among his vague comments about the characters, values, and culture passed by Mexican vaqueros to later arrivals from the Eastern US, Sadler intersperses nods to the gauchos, llaneros, and other South American “cowmen,” plus the paniolos of Hawaii, and the renowned African-American cowboys. He also decries the role film and popular literature have played in suppressing the vaqueros’ place in the history of the American West. He tackles an uncommon topic, and will broaden the historical perspective of many young cowboy fans, but his glance at modern vaqueros seems to stop at this country’s borders. Young readers will get a far more detailed, vivid picture of vaquero life and work from the cowboy classics in his annotated bibliography. (Notes, glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2001
ISBN: 0-8050-6019-7
Page Count: 116
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2000
The life of Manjiro Nakahama, also known as John Mung, makes an amazing story: shipwrecked as a young fisherman for months on a remote island, rescued by an American whaler, he became the first Japanese resident of the US. Then, after further adventures at sea and in the California gold fields, he returned to Japan where his first-hand knowledge of America and its people earned him a central role in the modernization of his country after its centuries of peaceful isolation had ended. Expanding a passage from her Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun (1985, Newbery Honor), Blumberg not only delivers an absorbing tale of severe hardships and startling accomplishments, but also takes side excursions to give readers vivid pictures of life in mid-19th-century Japan, aboard a whaler, and amidst the California Gold Rush. The illustrations, a generous mix of contemporary photos and prints with Manjiro’s own simple, expressive drawings interspersed, are at least as revealing. Seeing a photo of Commodore Perry side by side with a Japanese artist’s painted portrait, or strange renditions of a New England town and a steam train, based solely on Manjiro’s verbal descriptions, not only captures the unique flavor of Japanese art, but points up just how high were the self-imposed barriers that separated Japan from the rest of the world. Once again, Blumberg shows her ability to combine high adventure with vivid historical detail to open a window onto the past. (source note) (Biography. 10-13)
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2001
ISBN: 0-688-17484-1
Page Count: 80
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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