Tompert (Pied Piper of Peru, 2002, etc.) draws on early sources for this simply phrased retelling of the familiar legend, quoting Joan directly and letting contemporaries do the moralizing: “Even the King of England’s secretary wept. ‘We are all lost,’ he cried. ‘We have burnt a good and holy person.’ ” The author rounds off her tale with an account of how King Charles, “filled with Joan’s winning spirit,” drove the English from most of France, and of Joan’s subsequent canonization. Garland (Best Place to Read, Jan. 2003, etc.), however, sanitizes the Maid of Orleans’s brief career, portraying her as a creamy-skinned, spotlessly clean figure who never displays more than minor discomfort, even when pulling an arrow (bloodlessly) from her own shoulder, or standing with palms together as flames and smoke rise around her. Next to Josephine Poole’s searching version, with its powerful illustrations by Angela Barrett (2000), or Diane Stanley’s richly detailed rendition (1999), this comes across as a bland, superficial portrait of one of history’s most surprising movers and shakers. (Picture book/biography. 7-9)
Pub Date: April 1, 2003
ISBN: 1-59078-009-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2003
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Quick and slick, but ably makes its case.
The distinguished jurist stands tall as a role model.
Not literally tall, of course—not only was she actually tiny but, as with all the other bobbleheaded caricatures in the “Ordinary People Change the World” series, Ginsburg, sporting huge eyeglasses on an outsize head over black judicial robes even in childhood, remains a doll-like figure in all of Eliopoulos’ cartoon scenes. It’s in the frank acknowledgment of the sexism and antisemitism she resolutely overcame as she went from reading about “real female heroes” to becoming one—and also the clear statement of how she so brilliantly applied the principle of “tikkun olam” (“repairing the world”) in her career to the notion that women and men should have the same legal rights—that her stature comes clear. For all the brevity of his profile, Meltzer spares some attention for her private life, too (“This is Marty. He loved me, and he loved my brains. So I married him!”). Other judicial activists of the past and present, all identified and including the current crop of female Supreme Court justices, line up with a diversely hued and abled group of younger followers to pay tribute in final scenes. “Fight for the things you care about,” as a typically savvy final quote has it, “but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”
Quick and slick, but ably makes its case. (timeline, photos, source list, further reading) (Picture-book biography. 7-9)Pub Date: Jan. 9, 2024
ISBN: 9780593533338
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Rocky Pond Books/Penguin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2023
Dedicating her newest offering to Leonardo da Vinci, “My special hero of invention,” Williams sweeps through the entire history of inventions, from ball (“an unknown Stone Age child, c. 40,000 B.C.”) to ball-point (Ladislao Biro, 1938). Framing sequential comic book–style panels in banter and bits of fact delivered by a flock of birds, she highlights 11 important figures, adding spreads devoted to women, to “Inventors of Useful Things” and in closing, to several dozen favorites, including such modern necessities as the chocolate bar (François Louis Cailler, 1819) and the self-cleaning house (Frances Gabe, 1950). She’s not much for depth of detail, but her brightly colored cartoons, crowded with tiny, expressively drawn figures, create an irresistibly celebratory tone, and by pairing familiar names with lesser-known but no less deserving precursors—Richard Trevithick with George Stephenson, Antonio Meucci with Alexander Graham Bell—she counters the more simplistic accounts common in other titles. An exuberant alternative to Judith St. George’s skimpier but more analytical So You Want to Be an Inventor (2002), illus by David Small. (index) (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-7636-2760-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2005
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