Another fine entry in this historical series for young readers.
The latest of author Adams and illustrator Gallegos’ (The Santa Thief, 2017, etc.) Depression-era picture books shows a young boy’s connection to a doomed circus horse.
Freckled, dark-haired Georgie really wants to go to the circus. His parents scold him for asking for money for doing chores, but when his father finds out why he wants it, he offers to take him and Georgie’s friend Harley to the circus himself. In the big tent, they see a beautiful horse, Lady Roxie, and Georgie is enthralled. When he gets the chance to ride her around the ring, he’s ecstatic, but he later discovers that she’s being sold to someone who’s going to work her to death. When the new owner grabs for the reins, Roxie sprints away—taking Georgie with her. The thievery in the title isn’t Georgie’s fault, even though the new owner accuses him of that crime. Fans of the series may wonder where Papa comes up with the money that he uses to save the day, considering how tough things are for the family overall. Still, the endings for both Georgie and Roxie are satisfying, and Gallegos’ brightly colored illustrations are a joy. They also feature some characters of color—a first for the series—among the circus workers.
Another fine entry in this historical series for young readers.Pub Date: Nov. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-943006-75-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: SparkPress
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An exceptional addition to the resistance stories of enslaved people.
Two youngsters escaping slavery find refuge.
Twelve-year-old Homer and his little sister, Ada, become separated from their mother as they attempt to flee enslavement on the Southerland plantation. They are rescued by Suleman, who takes them deep into the Great Dismal Swamp, where they join Freewater, a community of people who successfully fled from slavery and children who were born there. They work together to remain free, support one another, and remember the history of their founding. Suleman is one of the men who patrols the swamp, watching for any who would seek to reenslave them. He and others raid neighboring plantations for supplies. Freeborn Sanzi, 12, is determined to be a hero like Suleman—even if it gets her into trouble—and when her efforts go badly wrong, it places their settlement in danger. Meanwhile, back at Southerland, Homer’s mother has been caught and severely whipped. This does not keep Homer’s friend Anna from plotting her own escape while Homer seeks a way to rescue his mother. Set in a fictional community but based on real stories of those who fled slavery and lived secretly in Southern swamps, this is detailed and well-researched historical fiction. The characters are varied, complex, and fully realized. Descriptions of the setting are so vivid that it becomes a key aspect of the narrative. The page-turning action will engage readers as the story reaches a satisfying conclusion.
An exceptional addition to the resistance stories of enslaved people. (author's note) (Historical fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-316-05661-8
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 29, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2021
Visually stunning, completely compelling, Wonderstruck demonstrates a mastery and maturity that proves that, yes, lightning...
Brian Selznick didn't have to do it.
He didn't have to return to the groundbreaking pictures-and-text format that stunned the children's-book world in 2007 and won him an unlikely—though entirely deserved—Caldecott medal for The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Weighing in at about two pounds, the 500-plus page tome combined textual and visual storytelling in a way no one had quite seen before. In a world where the new becomes old in the blink of an eye, Selznick could have honorably rested on his laurels and returned to the standard 32-to-48–page picture-book format he has already mastered. He didn't have to try to top himself. But he has. If Hugo Cabret was a risky experiment that succeeded beyond Selznick and publisher Scholastic’s wildest dreams (well, maybe not Scholastic’s—they dream big), his follow-up, Wonderstruck, is a far riskier enterprise. In replicating the storytelling format of Hugo, Selznick begs comparisons that could easily find Wonderstruck wanting or just seem stale. Like its predecessor, this self-described "novel in words and pictures" opens with a cinematic, multi-page, wordless black-and-white sequence: Two wolves lope through a wooded landscape, the illustrator's "camera" zooming in to the eye of one till readers are lost in its pupil. The scene changes abruptly, to Gunflint Lake, Minn., in 1977. Prose describes how Ben Wilson, age 12, wakes from a nightmare about wolves. He's three months an orphan, living with his aunt and cousins after his mother's death in an automobile accident; he never knew his father. Then the scene cuts again, to Hoboken in 1927. A sequence of Selznick's now-trademark densely crosshatched black-and-white drawings introduces readers to a girl, clearly lonely, who lives in an attic room that looks out at New York City and that is filled with movie-star memorabilia and models—scads of them—of the skyscrapers of New York. Readers know that the two stories will converge, but Selznick keeps them guessing, cutting back and forth with expert precision. Both children leave their unhappy homes and head to New York City, Ben hoping to find his father and the girl also in search of family. The girl, readers learn, is deaf; her silent world is brilliantly evoked in wordless sequences, while Ben’s story unfolds in prose. Both stories are equally immersive and impeccably paced. The two threads come together at the American Museum of Natural History, Selznick's words and pictures communicating total exhilaration (and conscious homage to The Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler). Hugo brought the bygone excitement of silent movies to children; Wonderstruck shows them the thrilling possibilities of museums in a way Night at the Museum doesn't even bother to.
Visually stunning, completely compelling, Wonderstruck demonstrates a mastery and maturity that proves that, yes, lightning can strike twice. (Historical fiction. 9 & up)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-545-02789-2
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2011
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