Though offering less polished prose than in previous series volumes, this installment with its approachable illustrations...
Author Roman and illustrator Tabor (If You Were Me and Lived In…the Middle Ages, 2016, etc.) return to their history series with this illustrated primer on the Oregon Trail during pioneer days.
Opening with a comparison shot of modern Willamette Valley and that same place in 1843, with a young adult in modern clothes in the same posture as a pioneer boy on the next page, this book launches into what life was like for one family on the Oregon Trail. Focusing on the “you” of this book, a 12-year-old boy named either Clarence or Ethan, the story follows the family from Ohio on “The Great Migration of 1843.” Encouraged by an uncle who previously headed to California to find gold, the clan packs up a Conestoga wagon and joins thousands of people in Independence, Missouri, to form a wagon train for the 2,000-mile journey. Kids who have played “Oregon Trail” will find this section quite familiar, down to the supplies packed by the boy’s mother (which are among the provisions players choose in that classic game). The five-month journey involves some politics (the adults elect a leader and a council that settles arguments), some chores (including collecting buffalo chips; the sister’s downtrodden expression in the illustration is priceless), and many dangers, including illnesses like cholera and the treacherous crossing of the Columbia River. When the family members arrive, they are granted free land as long as they farm it, several years in advance of the Homestead Act of 1862. In fact, Oregon was not clearly under U.S. sovereignty until 1846, so some of the details throughout the cheekily illustrated book seem slightly fudged for the sake of the narrative. In addition, some errors appear in the text (for example, Ohio winds up on the East Coast). Roman is at her strongest when discussing typical clothing of the era and place and farm work in the 19th century. She tackles the issues of settlers displacing Native Americans with sensitivity, though she misses the mark a bit when glibly explaining how many had died from disease.
Though offering less polished prose than in previous series volumes, this installment with its approachable illustrations serves as a reasonable introduction to westward expansion.Pub Date: June 18, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5328-7784-1
Page Count: 58
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.
A coffee-table book celebrates Michelle Obama’s sense of fashion.
Illustrated with hundreds of full-color photographs, Obama’s chatty latest book begins with some school portraits from the author’s childhood in Chicago and fond memories of back-to-school shopping at Sears, then jumps into the intricacies of clothing oneself as the spouse of a presidential candidate and as the first lady. “People looked forward to the outfits, and once I got their attention, they listened to what I had to say. This is the soft power of fashion,” she says. Obama is grateful and frank about all the help she got along the way, and the volume includes a long section written by her primary wardrobe stylist, Koop—28 years old when she first took the job—and shorter sections by makeup artists and several hair stylists, who worked with wigs and hair extensions as Obama transitioned back to her natural hair, and grew out her bangs, at the end of her husband’s second term. Many of the designers of the author’s gowns, notably Jason Wu, who designed several of her more striking outfits, also contribute appreciative memories. Besides candid and more formal photographs, the volume features many sketches of her gowns by their designers, closeups on details of those gowns, and magazine covers from Better Homes & Gardens to Vogue. The author writes that as a Black woman, “I was under a particularly white-hot glare, constantly appraised for whether my outfits were ‘acceptable’ and ‘appropriate,’ the color of my skin somehow inviting even more judgment than the color of my dresses.” Overall, though, this is generally a canny, upbeat volume, with little in the way of surprising revelations.
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593800706
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
SEEN & HEARD
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