Quibbles aside, this will find a receptive audience with trivia buffs, tourists, and residents of all ages.
As with Ben Franklin (2011) and Abe Lincoln (2015), Schroeder and O’Brien employ the alphabet to pair lesser-known tidbits with humorous ink-and-watercolor caricatures to, in this case, present some of the people, places, and politics associated with the nation’s capital.
Although each letter has multiple entries, some are relegated to a half page while others are assigned two. There are interesting choices for “X,” such as the panda Mei Xiang, and the X-1 and X-15 planes in the Air and Space Museum. Humans include Benjamin Banneker, the African-American surveyor of the district’s boundaries, and Glenn Sundby, the white acrobat who descended the Washington Monument steps on his hands. A claw-footed, Capitol-shaped bathtub whimsically highlights 1860 amenities in the dusty building’s basement. Some details are summarized to the point of misleading; for instance, the statement that when black contralto Marian Anderson was barred from singing in Constitution Hall, she “simply changed the venue” is not accurate. (Eleanor Roosevelt and her husband intervened to procure the Lincoln Memorial.) Also, it is not possible to verify the rumor that underground tunnels stretch from the Capitol to the White House, as O’Brien depicts them. Quotes from figures as diverse as Shirley Chisholm, Groucho Marx, and Dan Quayle provide additional perspectives.
Quibbles aside, this will find a receptive audience with trivia buffs, tourists, and residents of all ages. (Informational picture book. 6-12)Pub Date: March 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3678-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
A substantive and affirming addition to any collection.
An impressive array of names, events, and concepts from Black history are introduced in this alphabet book for early-elementary readers.
From A for anthem(“a banner of song / that wraps us in hope, lets us know we belong”) to Z for zenith(“the top of that mountain King said we would reach”), this picture book is a journey through episodes, ideas, and personalities that represent a wide range of Black experiences. Some spreads celebrate readers themselves, like B for beautiful(“I’m talking to you!”); others celebrate accomplishments, such as E for explore(Matthew Henson, Mae Jemison), or experiences, like G for the Great Migration. The rhyming verses are light on the tongue, making the reading smooth and soothing. The brightly colored, folk art–style illustrations offer vibrant scenes of historical and contemporary Black life, with common people and famous people represented in turn. Whether reading straight through and poring over each page or flipping about to look at the refreshing scenes full of brown and black faces, readers will feel pride and admiration for the resilience and achievements of Black people and a call to participate in the “unfinished…American tale.” Endnotes clarify terms and figures, and a resource list includes child-friendly books, websites, museums, and poems.
A substantive and affirming addition to any collection. (Informational picture book. 6-11)Pub Date: Dec. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5235-0749-8
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Workman
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A reasonably solid grounding in constitutional rights, their flexibility, lacunae, and hard-won corrections, despite a few...
Shamir offers an investigation of the foundations of freedoms in the United States via its founding documents, as well as movements and individuals who had great impacts on shaping and reshaping those institutions.
The opening pages of this picture book get off to a wobbly start with comments such as “You know that feeling you get…when you see a wide open field that you can run through without worrying about traffic or cars? That’s freedom.” But as the book progresses, Shamir slowly steadies the craft toward that wide-open field of freedom. She notes the many obvious-to-us-now exclusivities that the founding political documents embodied—that the entitled, white, male authors did not extend freedom to enslaved African-Americans, Native Americans, and women—and encourages readers to learn to exercise vigilance and foresight. The gradual inclusion of these left-behind people paints a modestly rosy picture of their circumstances today, and the text seems to give up on explaining how Native Americans continue to be left behind. Still, a vital part of what makes freedom daunting is its constant motion, and that is ably expressed. Numerous boxed tidbits give substance to the bigger political picture. Who were the abolitionists and the suffragists, what were the Montgomery bus boycott and the “Uprising of 20,000”? Faulkner’s artwork conveys settings and emotions quite well, and his drawing of Ruby Bridges is about as darling as it gets. A helpful timeline and bibliography appear as endnotes.
A reasonably solid grounding in constitutional rights, their flexibility, lacunae, and hard-won corrections, despite a few misfires. (Informational picture book. 6-10)Pub Date: May 2, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-54728-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
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