Infectious (if, currently, aspirational) reading for young armchair tourists.
A choose-your-itinerary–style ramble through the Big Smoke.
Squired by a same-sex interracial couple trailing a highly excited child of color, the tour begins at Tower Bridge and from there leads at the reader’s option either to the Tower’s ravens and Beefeaters or on to Borough Market. Further teasers offered on every spread suggest (in no geographically coherent way) outings to the London Eye, the mammoth Hamleys toy store, the Tate Modern, and many other like high spots. Other options take readers further afield, to Hampton Court Palace or even (with no mention of the actual distance) Stonehenge. Along the way rides in a double-decker bus or black cab are worth taking, as are stops for afternoon tea, fish and chips, or fare in Chinatown or Brick Lane’s Bangladeshi neighborhood. Naturally a few things don’t make the cut (but the V&A? Madame Tussauds? Really?), and, more significantly, neither the bubbly narrative nor the equally effervescent art hint at any pandemic restrictions. Still, the sense that London abounds in distinctive marvels comes through loud and clear, and though carping critics might note that the Tube is not the “oldest railway in the world,” or even in England, in general the descriptive and historical commentary is spot-on. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-16-inch double-page spreads viewed at 75% of actual size.)
Infectious (if, currently, aspirational) reading for young armchair tourists. (foldout map [not seen], annotated index) (Informational picture book. 6-10)Pub Date: June 15, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-68369-248-5
Page Count: 88
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
A reasonably solid grounding in constitutional rights, their flexibility, lacunae, and hard-won corrections, despite a few...
Shamir offers an investigation of the foundations of freedoms in the United States via its founding documents, as well as movements and individuals who had great impacts on shaping and reshaping those institutions.
The opening pages of this picture book get off to a wobbly start with comments such as “You know that feeling you get…when you see a wide open field that you can run through without worrying about traffic or cars? That’s freedom.” But as the book progresses, Shamir slowly steadies the craft toward that wide-open field of freedom. She notes the many obvious-to-us-now exclusivities that the founding political documents embodied—that the entitled, white, male authors did not extend freedom to enslaved African-Americans, Native Americans, and women—and encourages readers to learn to exercise vigilance and foresight. The gradual inclusion of these left-behind people paints a modestly rosy picture of their circumstances today, and the text seems to give up on explaining how Native Americans continue to be left behind. Still, a vital part of what makes freedom daunting is its constant motion, and that is ably expressed. Numerous boxed tidbits give substance to the bigger political picture. Who were the abolitionists and the suffragists, what were the Montgomery bus boycott and the “Uprising of 20,000”? Faulkner’s artwork conveys settings and emotions quite well, and his drawing of Ruby Bridges is about as darling as it gets. A helpful timeline and bibliography appear as endnotes.
A reasonably solid grounding in constitutional rights, their flexibility, lacunae, and hard-won corrections, despite a few misfires. (Informational picture book. 6-10)Pub Date: May 2, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-54728-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
A glorious monument to the national monuments.
The national monuments get their due.
Walker briefly recounts the history of the monuments (thank you, Teddy Roosevelt). Instead of the usual glossy photos, the text is paired with copious subtle watercolors, harmoniously arrayed with text on generous double-page spreads. Sparkling descriptions invite reader participation: “Imagine it’s 1892, and you’re arriving” in New York Harbor. “What will you see in the [pipestone] rocks?” Many monuments are in sites of superb natural beauty, but unlike the national parks, they must have historical, prehistorical, cultural, and/or scientific interest. Readers will find information on dinosaur fossils, geology, flora and fauna, and places important to Indigenous people, significant in history (Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument, Stonewall National Monument, the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument), and/or connected to American leaders like Cesar Chavez. Fascinating facts are interspersed (the Washington Monument is held together through friction and gravity rather than mortar; the Pullman workers’ 1894 strike helped establish Labor Day). Regional maps throughout indicate the locations of the various monuments, divided by area: East, Central, Southwest, Mountain West, West, Alaska, and Tropics. A calm, subdued palette and geometric-based forms that use washes rather than line allow for a maximum of information without fussiness and, with help from typography, evoke classic WPA posters.
A glorious monument to the national monuments. (index) (Nonfiction. 6-10)Pub Date: June 13, 2023
ISBN: 9780711265493
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Wide Eyed Editions
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2023
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