Buoyant if occasionally simplistic, with a distinct lean to the left.
An introduction to the U.S. Constitution, with case studies, commentary, and debate questions to spark rumination and discussion.
Using simplified language, as the original is replete with “old-fashioned terms and some of the loooooongest sentences you will ever see,” the authors go over select parts of each article and amendment in turn. Along with blowing off originalists by characterizing the document as designed “to be reinterpreted and revised over time as our society evolves,” they point to ways racial and gender inequities, beginning with enslavement, have so often been “silently woven between the lines” and caution readers to be wary of historical “whitewashing.” They also profile notable reformers, women who have served in Congress and/or run for president, and hot-button issues such as gun control and abortion rights. Budding political activists are encouraged at the close to get involved: “Power is fun!” Lewis populates the pages with mixes of stylized individual portraits and thoroughly diversified clusters of small figures waving protest signs, marching, or, like a rainbow row of women celebrating the 19th Amendment and the biracial couple raising glasses at Prohibition’s repeal, posing in triumph. Occasional bobbles notwithstanding—the Federalist Party was hardly “the nation’s financial system,” Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation did not “end slavery,” and it’s not 100% true that “police shootings of Black people…continue unchecked”—this view of the foundational document of our national system is both nuanced and reasonably easy to understand.
Buoyant if occasionally simplistic, with a distinct lean to the left. (glossary, index, reading list) (Nonfiction. 9-11)Pub Date: July 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-7112-5404-6
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Wide Eyed Editions
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2020
An ebullient collection of stunning comebacks, awesome athletes, and achievements both grand and dubious.
A fizzy compendium of baseball feats, firsts, and lore from Newbery Honoree and Kirkus Prize winner Barnes (Crown, illustrated by Gordon C. James, 2017).
Although Barnes doesn’t really stick to the “unheralded figures and untold stories” he says he’ll highlight, still he does tuck some less-heralded hijinks and heroes into an anecdotal rush that captures the “joy and wonderment that is baseball.” So, along with tributes to the likes of Satchel Paige and Negro Leagues founder Rube Foster, he tips a cap to Ozzie Vergil, the first Dominican major leaguer; slugger Hank Greenberg, the “Hebrew Hammer”; “Tommy John” surgeon Dr. Frank Jobe; and four African Americans who played professionally before Jackie Robinson. Not to mention a nine-inning, 49-run game and another that went 33 innings. In formal, neatly drawn cartoons, Bajet tones down some of the wilder incidents, giving his subjects—even mascots—dignified presences and, usually, welcoming smiles. Fans budding or confirmed will need to look elsewhere for an organized baseball history or highlights reel, but they will come away feeling as if they’d sat in the bleachers with a true enthusiast who’s helped them earn “some idea of how much of a challenge it was for players of color, players from outside the United States, and for women to be part of this beautiful game.”
An ebullient collection of stunning comebacks, awesome athletes, and achievements both grand and dubious. (bibliography, glossary) (Nonfiction. 9-11)Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5235-0553-1
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Workman
Review Posted Online: Dec. 17, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
A case study of science at its idealistic and paradigm-changing best.
A handsomely designed tribute to the brilliant naturalist who very nearly scooped Darwin.
It was “a case of great minds thinking alike,” Dorion writes. But while Darwin had slowly, cautiously articulated his hypotheses to himself over decades in his country home, they came as flashes of insight to Wallace in the course of scouring the jungles of the Amazon and the Malay Archipelago for exotic specimens to sell to European collectors. It was Wallace’s 1858 letter to Darwin that spurred the latter to go public—and Wallace’s salutary lack of ego that turned what might have been a bitter battle over claims of precedence into a long and cordial relationship. Though the author skimps on Wallace’s later career and misleadingly tags the heart of his proposed theory as “natural selection” (that was Darwin’s term, not Wallace’s), she offers clear pictures of his character and his passion for natural science while making generous use of direct quotations. Tennant gives the slightly oversized volume the feel of a collector’s album with ranks of accurately drawn tropical beetles, birds, and other specimens. These he intersperses with portraits of eminent colleagues, images of collecting gear, and verdant scenes of the white explorer at work either alone or with one or more Indigenous assistants (the latter only sometimes identified, or even mentioned, in the narrative).
A case study of science at its idealistic and paradigm-changing best. (map, glossary, reading list) (Picture book/biography. 9-11)Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0932-7
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Candlewick Studio
Review Posted Online: Feb. 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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