An affectionate, admiring tribute to our 39th president.
An outline of President Jimmy Carter’s life—peanut farmer, president, and Nobel Peace Prize winner.
As a child growing up during the Depression on a farm in Plains, Georgia, Jimmy Carter “knew more people of color than most white boys his age.” In fact, an African American boy named Alonzo “A.D.” Davis was Jimmy’s best friend until they got older and the ways of segregation altered their relationship. Hegedus focuses on segregation as a key element in Carter’s life, and Han’s muted, fine-lined illustrations complement and extend the text, effectively evoking segregated lunch counters, movie theaters, school buses, and schools. As a young man, Carter’s response to the injustice he witnessed was to create a set of “Good Mental Habits” to live by; even though they are included in an illustration, these aren’t adequately explained. As he became politically active and progressed from local school board to the Georgia state Senate, from governor to president, Carter began to act against injustice. Though it is not made clear what he did to work for change in U.S. race relations, he is shown working on the Camp David Accords, trying to bring home hostages from Iran, and building houses for Habitat for Humanity.
An affectionate, admiring tribute to our 39th president. (author’s note, timeline, bibliography, online resources) (Picture book/biography. 4-8)Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-264378-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
A picture book more than worthy of sharing the shelf with Alan Schroeder and Jerry Pinkney’s Minty (1996) and Carole Boston...
A memorable, lyrical reverse-chronological walk through the life of an American icon.
In free verse, Cline-Ransome narrates the life of Harriet Tubman, starting and ending with a train ride Tubman takes as an old woman. “But before wrinkles formed / and her eyes failed,” Tubman could walk tirelessly under a starlit sky. Cline-Ransome then describes the array of roles Tubman played throughout her life, including suffragist, abolitionist, Union spy, and conductor on the Underground Railroad. By framing the story around a literal train ride, the Ransomes juxtapose the privilege of traveling by rail against Harriet’s earlier modes of travel, when she repeatedly ran for her life. Racism still abounds, however, for she rides in a segregated train. While the text introduces readers to the details of Tubman’s life, Ransome’s use of watercolor—such a striking departure from his oil illustrations in many of his other picture books—reveals Tubman’s humanity, determination, drive, and hope. Ransome’s lavishly detailed and expansive double-page spreads situate young readers in each time and place as the text takes them further into the past.
A picture book more than worthy of sharing the shelf with Alan Schroeder and Jerry Pinkney’s Minty (1996) and Carole Boston Weatherford and Kadir Nelson’s Moses (2006). (Picture book/biography. 5-8)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2047-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses.
An NBA star pays tribute to the influence of his grandfather.
In the same vein as his Long Shot (2009), illustrated by Frank Morrison, this latest from Paul prioritizes values and character: “My granddad Papa Chilly had dreams that came true,” he writes, “so maybe if I listen and watch him, / mine will too.” So it is that the wide-eyed Black child in the simply drawn illustrations rises early to get to the playground hoops before anyone else, watches his elder working hard and respecting others, hears him cheering along with the rest of the family from the stands during games, and recalls in a prose afterword that his grandfather wasn’t one to lecture but taught by example. Paul mentions in both the text and the backmatter that Papa Chilly was the first African American to own a service station in North Carolina (his presumed dream) but not that he was killed in a robbery, which has the effect of keeping the overall tone positive and the instructional content one-dimensional. Figures in the pictures are mostly dark-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-81003-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
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