In 1888, people suffered one of the worst winters in U.S. history. New York City had its “Great Blizzard” and the high plains were struck by a sudden, life-threatening blizzard in January. Called the “Schoolchildren’s Blizzard” because it caused the deaths of many children who were trapped away from home, Hart tells how a group of Nebraska school children were saved thanks to the actions of 11-year-old Anna Vail. A poor student, she's more comfortable herding sheep and working around the homestead than holding a pencil or reading. She devises a plan to lead the children from the destroyed school, into the icy blinding whiteout and deepening snow. After the dangerous trip, they find a soddy in which to shelter. Perhaps Anna and some of the other characters are too good, and one, too prissy, but readers should identify with Anna and admire her spunk. In addition, readers will learn about the hardships of life on the treeless plains. “More about life on the Prairie in the 1880s” adds information. Could work as a read-aloud, too. (Historical fiction. 8-10)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2005
ISBN: 1-56145-349-8
Page Count: 156
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2005
PLB 0-531-33140-7 Ketcham’s first book is based on an allegedly true story of a childhood incident in the life of Johann Sebastian Bach. It starts with a couple of pages regaling the Bach home and all the Johanns in the family, who made their fame through music. After his father’s death, Johann Sebastian goes to live with his brother, Johann Christoph, where he boasts that he is the best organist in the world. Johann Christoph contradicts him: “Old Adam Reincken is the best.” So Johann Sebastian sets out to hear the master himself. In fact, he is humbled to tears, but there is hope that he will be the world’s best organist one day. Johann Sebastian emerges as little more than a brat, Reincken as more of a suggestion than a character. Bush’s illustrations are most transporting when offering details of the landscape, but his protagonist is too impish to give the story much authority. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-531-30140-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1999
Adler (also with Widener, Lou Gehrig, 1997, etc.) sets his fictional story during the week of July 14, 1932, in the Bronx, when the news items that figure in this tale happened. A boy gets a dime for his birthday, instead of the bicycle he longs for, because it is the Great Depression, and everyone who lives in his neighborhood is poor. While helping his friend Jacob sell newspapers, he discovers that his own father, who leaves the house with a briefcase each day, is selling apples on Webster Avenue along with the other unemployed folk. Jacob takes the narrator to Yankee Stadium with the papers, and people don’t want to hear about the Coney Island fire or the boy who stole so he could get something to eat in jail. They want to hear about Babe Ruth and his 25th homer. As days pass, the narrator keeps selling papers, until the astonishing day when Ruth himself buys a paper from the boy with a five-dollar bill and tells him to keep the change. The acrylic paintings bask in the glow of a storied time, where even row houses and the elevated train have a warm, solid presence. The stadium and Webster Avenue are monuments of memory rather than reality in a style that echoes Thomas Hart Benton’s strong color and exaggerated figures. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-15-201378-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999
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