The brilliant and beautiful 16-year-old daughter of a famous and controversial couple runs away with a married man. The man's pregnant wife commits suicide. The story has barely begun. Miller (Boris Yeltsin, 1994, etc.) can be forgiven for a somewhat breathless tone in this biography. He clearly outlines Mary Shelley's complex relationships with her father, William Godwin; her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley; her extended family, and above all, her devotion to the memory of the mother she never knew, Mary Wollstonecraft, author of The Vindication of the Rights of Women. He also strives to give a coherent picture of her scholarly and intellectually passionate life in the midst of travel, love affairs, gossip, pregnancies, the tragic deaths of many of her children, and her husband's early, fatal drowning. In all this swirling detail, it is easy to lose the key to why this biography counts: At 19, Shelley forged her father's social theory and her age's new science in the crucible of her imagination to create a new genre, science fiction, with her novel Frankenstein. A few small errors of fact notwithstanding (e.g., Leghorn and Livorno are the English and Italian names for the same city), Miller paints her life in quick, vivid strokes. Readers looking for a source on the creator of Frankenstein's monster will be seduced by this fabulous and romantic true story. (b&w illustrations, bibliography, notes, sources, chronology, index) (Biography. 12+)
Pub Date: March 1, 1996
ISBN: 1-883846-13-7
Page Count: 124
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
Small but mighty necessary reading.
A miniature manifesto for radical queer acceptance that weaves together the personal and political.
Eli, a cis gay white Jewish man, uses his own identities and experiences to frame and acknowledge his perspective. In the prologue, Eli compares the global Jewish community to the global queer community, noting, “We don’t always get it right, but the importance of showing up for other Jews has been carved into the DNA of what it means to be Jewish. It is my dream that queer people develop the same ideology—what I like to call a Global Queer Conscience.” He details his own isolating experiences as a queer adolescent in an Orthodox Jewish community and reflects on how he and so many others would have benefitted from a robust and supportive queer community. The rest of the book outlines 10 principles based on the belief that an expectation of mutual care and concern across various other dimensions of identity can be integrated into queer community values. Eli’s prose is clear, straightforward, and powerful. While he makes some choices that may be divisive—for example, using the initialism LGBTQIAA+ which includes “ally”—he always makes clear those are his personal choices and that the language is ever evolving.
Small but mighty necessary reading. (resources) (Nonfiction. 14-18)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09368-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
Brief yet inspirational, this story will galvanize youth to use their voices for change.
Testa’s connection to and respect for nature compelled her to begin championing animal causes at the age of 10, and this desire to have an impact later propelled her to dedicate her life to fighting plastic pollution. Starting with the history of plastic and how it’s produced, Testa acknowledges the benefits of plastics for humanity but also the many ways it harms our planet. Instead of relying on recycling—which is both insufficient and ineffective—she urges readers to follow two additional R’s: “refuse” and “raise awareness.” Readers are encouraged to do their part, starting with small things like refusing to use plastic straws and water bottles and eventually working up to using their voices to influence business and policy change. In the process, she highlights other youth advocates working toward the same cause. Short chapters include personal examples, such as observations of plastic pollution in Mauritius, her maternal grandparents’ birthplace. Testa makes her case not only against plastic pollution, but also for the work she’s done, resulting in something of a college-admissions–essay tone. Nevertheless, the first-person accounts paired with science will have an impact on readers. Unfortunately, no sources are cited and the lack of backmatter is a missed opportunity.
Brief yet inspirational, this story will galvanize youth to use their voices for change. (Nonfiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-22333-8
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
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