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A STREET CALLED HOME

Name: A STREET CALLED HOME
Author: Aminah Robinson
ISBN: 0-15-201465-9

by Aminah Robinson & illustrated by Aminah Robinson & Brenda Lynn ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1997

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In an accordion book with flaps, an extraordinary celebration of Mount Vernon Avenue, a street that sprang from an Ohio shantytown called the Blackberry Patch that was the destination for many African-Americans pushing north during the turn of the century. The book is an eyeful, in bold and swarming colors; the characters readers meet (their names and occupations are spelled out under the flaps) seem fabulous, but it's clear they were ordinary fixtures on Mount Vernon Avenue—``a self-sufficient street, it knew how to survive.'' There is the Sockman, who washes and mends old socks; Doctor Kickapoo, the Medicineman, with his peach leaves for rheumatism and pouches of asafetida and greegree; the Cameraman; the Chickenfoot woman. The pages can be flipped and read, but children will want to pull the whole accordion out and revel in the pulsing street scene. There is an agreeable sentimentality to this 1940s tableaux that refuses to go pretty, a sense that readers are witnessing the real thing. (Picture book. 4-9)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1997

ISBN: 0-15-201465-9

Page Count: 24

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1997

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HISTORICAL FICTION

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MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE

by Marie Bradby & illustrated by Chris K. Soentpiet ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1995

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An inspiring story of young boy's compelling desire to read. As a boy of nine, Booker works in a salt mine from the dark of early morning to the gloom of night, hungry for a meal, but even hungrier to learn to read. Readers follow him on his quest in Malden, Virginia, where he finds inspiration in a man ``brown as me'' reading a newspaper on a street corner. An alphabet book helps, but Booker can't make the connection to words. Seeking out ``that brown face of hope'' once again, Booker gains a sense of the sounds represented by letters, and these become his deliverance. Bradby's fine first book is tautly written, with a poetic, spiritual quality in every line. The beautifully executed, luminous illustrations capture the atmosphere of an African-American community post-slavery: the drudgery of days consumed by back- breaking labor, the texture of private lives conducted by lantern- light. There is no other context or historical note about Booker T. Washington's life, leaving readers to piece together his identity. Regardless, this is an immensely satisfying, accomplished work, resonating first with longing and then with joy. (Picture book. 5- 8)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1995

ISBN: 0-531-09464-2

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Orchard

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1995

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HISTORICAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
SOME FRIEND
by Marie Bradby

- BOOK REVIEW
ONCE UPON A FARM
by Marie Bradby & illustrated by Ted Rand

- BOOK REVIEW
THE LONGEST WAIT
by Marie Bradby & illustrated by Peter Catalanotto

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PINK AND SAY

by Patricia Polacco & illustrated by Patricia Polacco ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 15, 1994

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A white youth from Ohio, Sheldon Russell Curtis (Say), and a black youth from Georgia, Pinkus Aylee (Pink), meet as young soldiers with the Union army. Pink finds Say wounded in the leg after a battle and brings him home with him. Pink's mother, Moe Moe Bay, cares for the boys while Say recuperates, feeding and comforting them and banishing the war for a time. Whereas Pink is eager to go back and fight against "the sickness" that is slavery, Say is afraid to return to his unit. But when he sees Moe Moe Bay die at the hands of marauders, he understands the need to return. Pink and Say are captured by Confederate soldiers and brought to the notorious Andersonville prison camp. Say is released months later, ill and undernourished, but Pink is never released, and Polacco reports that he was hanged that very first day because he was black. Polacco (Babushka Baba Yaga, 1993, etc; My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother, above) tells this story, which was passed down for generations in her family (Say was her great-great-grandfather), carefully and without melodrama so that it speaks for itself. The stunning illustrations — reminiscent of the German expressionist Egon Shiele in their use of color and form — are completely heartbreaking. A spectacular achievement. (Nonfiction/Picture book. 4- 8)