An album of highlights from the British Library’s 2017 exhibit commemorating the 20th anniversary of Harry’s first publication.
The exhibit, scheduled to cross the pond in 2018, will eventually get a full catalog, but in the meantime, this makes a handsome place holder. Arranged to reflect the Hogwarts curriculum (“Potions and Alchemy,” “Defense Against the Dark Arts,” etc.), the sections each offer a mix of drawings and work-in-progress pages from J.K. Rowling’s archives, images from old manuscripts or printed books, pictures of artifacts (notably a 3,000-year-old cauldron and a real bezoar), and splendid Renaissance-style portraits of select characters by Jim Kay. Along with such fan-wowers as Rowling’s original typed synopsis of the first episode and a deleted chapter from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, glimpses of pages from Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks, ancient Chinese oracle bones, an Ethiopian book of charms, and a Thai divination manual testify to the exhibition’s historical and geographical reach. The accompanying notes include introductions to both Leonardo and the real Nicholas Flamel along with quick comments on witchcraft, alchemy, herbology, and diverse occult practices—plus pull quotes from the novels and a few perfunctory recipes for “potions” or other hands-on activities. Nods to spinoffs, from one of the author’s handwritten copies of The Tales of Beadle the Bard to the screenplay and set for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, bring Harry’s epic tale up to the present.
A handsomely produced and properly tantalizing overview of rare treasures from both the series and the cultural context that inspired its magical setting and world. (Nonfiction. 9-14)Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-338-26710-5
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 3, 2017
Categories: CHILDREN'S HISTORY
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Caldecott Medalist McCully delves into the lives of extraordinary American women.
Beginning with the subject of her earlier biography Ida M. Tarbell (2014), McCully uses a chronological (by birth year) structure to organize her diverse array of subjects, each of whom is allotted approximately 10 pages. Lovely design enhances the text with a full-color portrait of each woman and small additional illustrations in the author/illustrator’s traditional style, plenty of white space, and spare use of dynamic colors. This survey provides greater depth than most, but even so, some topics go troublingly uncontextualized to the point of reinforcing stereotype: “In slavery, Black women had been punished for trying to improve their appearance. Now that they were free, many cared a great deal about grooming”; “President Roosevelt ordered all Japanese Americans on the West Coast to report to internment camps to keep them from providing aid to the enemy Japanese forces.” Of the 21 surveyed, one Japanese-American woman (Patsy Mink) is highlighted, as are one Latinx woman (Dolores Huerta), one Mohegan woman (Gladys Tantaquidgeon), three black women (Madam C.J. Walker, Ella Baker, and Shirley Chisholm), four out queer white women (Billie Jean King, Barbara Gittings, Jane Addams, and Isadora Duncan; the latter two’s sexualities are not discussed), two Jewish women (Gertrude Berg and Vera Rubin), and three women with known disabilities (Addams, Dorothea Lange, and Temple Grandin).
Despite its not insignificant flaws, this book provides insights into the lives of important women, many of whom have otherwise yet to be featured in nonfiction for young readers. (sources) (Collective biography. 10-14)Pub Date: Nov. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-368-01991-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2018
Categories: CHILDREN'S BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | CHILDREN'S HISTORY
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A custom-built, bulletproof limo links two historical figures who were pre-eminent in more or less different spheres.
Garland admits that a claim that FDR was driven to Congress to deliver his “Day of Infamy” speech in a car that once belonged to Capone rests on shaky evidence. He nonetheless uses the anecdote as a launchpad for twin portraits of contemporaries who occupy unique niches in this country’s history but had little in common. Both were smart, ambitious New Yorkers and were young when their fathers died, but they definitely “headed in opposite directions.” As he fills his biographical sketches with standard-issue facts and has disappointingly little to say about the car itself (which was commissioned by Capone in 1928 and still survives), this outing seems largely intended to be a vehicle for the dark, heavy illustrations. These are done in muted hues with densely scratched surfaces and angled so that the two men, the period backgrounds against which they are posed, and the car have monumental looks. It’s a reach to bill this, as the author does, a “story about America,” but it does at least offer a study in contrasts featuring two of America’s most renowned citizens. Most of the human figures are white in the art, but some group scenes include a few with darker skin.
The car gets shortchanged, but comparing the divergent career paths of its (putative) two riders may give readers food for thought. (timeline, bibliography) (Picture book/biography. 10-12)Pub Date: March 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-88448-620-6
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Tilbury House
Review Posted Online: Jan. 15, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
Categories: CHILDREN'S BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | CHILDREN'S HISTORY
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