An intriguing memoir from a girl who’s become a cultural icon.
The Mongolian teen whose surprising 2014 win at the Golden Eagle Festival was charted in a 2016 documentary retells the story, expanding on her family’s nomadic Kazakh culture and the changes success has brought.
Nurgaiv’s grandfather and others secretly maintained the ancient Kazakh tradition of hunting with eagles, banned in Soviet-era Mongolia, teaching it to their sons. Watching their father teach her brother, Nurgaiv—calm, competitive, athletic—longed to learn herself. Nine years younger, born after many failed pregnancies, she was literally raised with eagles. She relates how she persuaded her parents, found her eaglet, trained and hunted with her, and entered and won the competition. Interwoven with this account is the story of a changing Mongolia amid a changing world. Before Nurgaiv’s training began, tourists—trekkers, journalists, photographers, a filmmaker—came to observe her family, whose livelihood derived in part from their visits. Each milestone on Nurgaiv’s eagle-huntress journey has been documented and shaped, as here, for an audience of outsiders. (Responding to past critiques, Nurgaiv here acknowledges that women eagle hunters competed in Kazakhstan before she did and downplays male opposition she faced.) Mediated by Welch and in translation, Nurgaiv’s voice is inconsistent. While expressions of clichéd adolescent excitement over her celebrity status feel somewhat manufactured, Nurgaiv’s love for and pride in her homeland, culture, and family come through with quiet, persuasive power.
An intriguing memoir from a girl who’s become a cultural icon. (glossary) (Memoir. 8-12)Pub Date: May 12, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-316-52261-8
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
Finally, an astro-memoir for kids that really gets down to the nitty-gritty.
A former space shuttle pilot and International Space Station commander recalls in unusually exacting detail what it’s like to be an astronaut.
In the same vein as his more expansive adult title How To Astronaut (2020), Virts describes and reflects on his experiences with frank and photographic precision—from riding the infamous “Vomit Comet” to what astronauts wear, eat, and get paid. He also writes vividly about what Earth looks like from near orbit: the different colors of deserts, for instance, and storms that “are so powerful that the flashes from the lightning illuminate the inside of the space station.” With an eye to younger audiences with stars in their eyes, he describes space programs of the past and near future in clear, simple language and embeds pep talks about the importance of getting a good education and ignoring nay-sayers. For readers eager to start their training early, he also tucks in the occasional preparatory “Astronaut Activity,” such as taking some (unused) household item apart…and then putting it back together. Lozano supplements the small color photos of our planet from space and astronauts at work with helpful labeled images, including two types of spacesuits and a space shuttle, as well as cartoon spot art depicting diverse figures.
Finally, an astro-memoir for kids that really gets down to the nitty-gritty. (glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 9-11)Pub Date: April 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781523514564
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Workman
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
Readers come away wishing for more of the children’s voices and less of Brown’s.
Twenty-one years after Children of the Midnight Sun, Brown and Corral reteam for a follow-up.
Before one gets to read the stories of the Alaska Native children highlighted in this book, the introduction makes the case that Alaska Native kids are “just like any other kid,” as if to normalize Indigenous children for the evidently non-Native audience that the book seems to imagine. Author Brown and photographer Corral trek across Alaska to a sample selection of children from 10 Indigenous cultures of Alaska. Each chapter looks at the life of one child as representative of their culture. The stories tell of the day-to-day activities of each child, how they engage with their families, their traditional culture, and their aspirations. The overview is in Brown’s voice, and interspersed within that narrative are snippets of quotes from the children. Photographs highlight the children with their family members, engaged in sports, having fun outdoors, or dressed in traditional clothing. Though the book attempts to celebrate these children and their respective cultures, the depictions at times feel objectified, seen through an ethnographic lens. Mention of the harsh colonial impact on their cultures is minimized; for example, readers learn that the missionary William Duncan established a rigidly evangelical Christian community on a Tlingit-populated island with a group of Tsimshian but not that he profited from their labor.
Readers come away wishing for more of the children’s voices and less of Brown’s. (glossary) (Nonfiction. 8-12)Pub Date: April 9, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5132-6197-3
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Alaska Northwest Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
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