Grounded in the events of the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott, this hybrid of fact and fiction is leavened by a guitar-picking hound dog’s blues-imbued narration. “This story begins with shoes. / This story is all for true. / This story walks. And walks. And walks. / To the blues.” The oppressive force of Jim Crow laws is evocatively personified both textually and visually. “…Jim Crow flew in waving his bony wings. …And on that day, it was Rosa Parks who got Jim Crow’s peck, peck, peck, right up close.” Brian Pinkney’s superb ink-on-board illustrations depict Jim Crow’s chiaroscuro menace: Gestural, wing-like shapes flail above tense cityscapes. The text conveys the grim determination of the 40,000 participants in the 13-month-long boycott, interweaving 1956’s landmark Supreme Court decision with segregation and Dr. King’s Montgomery speech on the night of Parks’s arrest. Parks’s preceding, years-long activism in civil-rights issues is unexamined in both text and author’s note, however, continuing an unfortunate silence shared with other treatments of the subject for young children. (author’s note, further resources) (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-06-082118-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2008
An inspiring though incomplete look at a critical historical moment.
Sometimes the decision of an individual can make all the difference.
Febb Burns knew what she wanted, and what she wanted was the right to vote. A college-educated white woman, she yearned to do what her white male neighbors in East Tennessee did every election day. But while she did not have that right, her son, Harry, did—not just as a citizen, but as a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives. The last to vote on ratification of the 19th Amendment, the body was closely divided between “yea” and “nay.” Even though Harry wore a red rose signifying opposition, he also carried with him a letter from his mother urging him to support the amendment. Listening to his mother and his conscience, vote “yea” he did, knowingly risking his seat. Boxer tells the story succinctly, clearly drawing the political lines so that young readers will understand the dynamics. Mildenberger’s inclusion of a few black women among those demonstrating for the vote reflects the historical reality that black women were part of the suffrage movement, but it also implies greater equality than truly existed, compounding Boxer’s elision of the fact that Jim Crow laws denied African Americans, both male and female, the vote. Irritatingly, though an illustration includes part of what is presumably Febb’s letter, that those were her words is never confirmed.
An inspiring though incomplete look at a critical historical moment. (author’s note, timeline) (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: March 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-53411-049-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2020
A pleasant dive into deep waters.
Explore ocean basics in illustrated storybook format.
Ocean narrates and is represented by two large, cheerful blue eyes, a crescent-moon mouth, and disembodied, impossibly elastic arms. Facts are shared conversationally, with vocabulary such as “dude,” “stoked,” and “chaa.” The sentences gather and bend with illustrations, set in contrasting type that occasionally changes color to balance color schemes or emphasize key concepts. Information about the ocean’s layers and marine features are presented with concise language and loads of visual interest. Double-page spreads teem with ocean life painted in warm, bright colors. A map serves as illustration when Ocean talks about land arriving—grown-ups may need to clarify that Earth’s continents were not always in this current state. Ocean waits until readers are all drawn in and enjoying the wonders to reveal problems like trash islands and ice melt. Consumer-level actions for ocean advocacy are included in the aftermatter, but solutions and action are not discussed in the primary text. A handful of unnamed human characters have diverse skin tones and homogenous body types. Conceptualizing one ocean instead of four nods to global accountability while also allowing for character development.
A pleasant dive into deep waters. (author’s note, bibliography) (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-10809-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
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