A gift to young readers with adventurous, poetic souls.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry might have loved young readers had he grown old and continued writing—certainly there’s much for children to love about the daring French aviator.
Landmann’s illustrated account, originally published in Italian and translated by the American publisher, is based on Saint-Exupéry’s writings. Photographs of Saint-Exupéry with siblings, aunt, comrades and wife, Consuelo, appear on the front endpapers. Landmann includes a fair amount of detail about Saint-Exupéry’s childhood, but his work as a pioneer of civil aviation forms the backbone of the story, with his life as a poet and a writer as the heart. The full-bleed illustrations are informed by magical realism if not surrealism, conveying a rich interior life of dreams and imagination alongside the external world. Her Tonio (as he was called) is solemn, his large eyes focused on something beyond the present. A grid of small windows against a desert landscape narrates moments from his career. If the drawings of airplanes are more impressionistic than precise, they nevertheless suggest the enchantment of being aloft in a small plane. A scene of Saint-Exupéry working on the manuscript for Le Petit Prince includes a peek at his imagined characters; the delightful back cover depicts the Little Prince and Tonio, shoes off, sitting in opposite chairs, apparently deep in speculative conversation. Sources cited are in Italian and include Saint-Exupéry’s writings and Consuelo’s memoir.
A gift to young readers with adventurous, poetic souls. (Picture book/biography. 6-11)Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-8028-5435-3
Page Count: 34
Publisher: Eerdmans
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
A picture book worth reading about a historical figure worth remembering.
An honestly told biography of an important politician whose name every American should know.
Published while the United States has its first African-American president, this story of John Roy Lynch, the first African-American speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives, lays bare the long and arduous path black Americans have walked to obtain equality. The title’s first three words—“The Amazing Age”—emphasize how many more freedoms African-Americans had during Reconstruction than for decades afterward. Barton and Tate do not shy away from honest depictions of slavery, floggings, the Ku Klux Klan, Jim Crow laws, or the various means of intimidation that whites employed to prevent blacks from voting and living lives equal to those of whites. Like President Barack Obama, Lynch was of biracial descent; born to an enslaved mother and an Irish father, he did not know hard labor until his slave mistress asked him a question that he answered honestly. Freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, Lynch had a long and varied career that points to his resilience and perseverance. Tate’s bright watercolor illustrations often belie the harshness of what takes place within them; though this sometimes creates a visual conflict, it may also make the book more palatable for young readers unaware of the violence African-Americans have suffered than fully graphic images would. A historical note, timeline, author’s and illustrator’s notes, bibliography and map are appended.
A picture book worth reading about a historical figure worth remembering. (Picture book biography. 7-10)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8028-5379-0
Page Count: 50
Publisher: Eerdmans
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015
An emotional entry point to a larger, necessary discussion on this complex and difficult subject.
The paths of four migrant children from different Central American countries cross as they enter Mexico, and together they continue their journey to the United States.
Though their reasons for undertaking the perilous journey are different, their hopes are not: They all hope for asylum in the U.S. Ten-year-old Alessandra, from Guatemala, hopes to reunite with her mother, who left four years ago. Thirteen-year-old Laura and her 7-year-old brother, Nando, from El Salvador, are going to live with relatives in the U.S. And 14-year-old Rodrigo, from Honduras, will try to join his parents in Nebraska rather than join a local gang. Along the way they encounter danger, hunger, kindness from strangers, and, most importantly, the strength of friendship with one another. Through the four children, the book provides but the barest glimpse into the reasons, hopes, and dreams of the thousands of unaccompanied minors that arrive at the U.S.–Mexico border every year. Artist Guevara has added Central American folk art–influenced details to her illustrations, giving depth to the artwork. These embellishments appear as line drawings superimposed on the watercolor scenes. The backmatter explains the reasons for the book, helping to place it within the larger context of ongoing projects at Baylor University related to the migration crisis in Central America.
An emotional entry point to a larger, necessary discussion on this complex and difficult subject. (Picture book. 7-10)Pub Date: July 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-64442-008-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Six Foot Press
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
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