An informative addition to the prolific author’s well-crafted series of illustrated books that make history relatable to a...
Part of a series for older elementary and young middle school students, this detailed work presents life in ancient Mali through the eyes of a young girl.
“If you were me and lived at the height of the Mali (Mah-lee) Empire, you would have been born in the year 1332.” The “me” referred to in this comprehensive history tale for tweens is a 10-year-old girl living in Mali’s capital city as it may have looked hundreds of years ago. Packed with facts about the West African kingdom and its long reign as a world power, this softcover picture book is part of Roman’s (Can a Princess Be a Firefighter?, 2017, etc.) diverse history series with titles covering such places as ancient China, the Mayan Empire, and ancient Greece. (The author’s nonfiction works also include her extensive If You Were Me and Lived in… series introducing children to cultures around the world.) As with her previous volumes, Roman hangs substantial educational content on a mild storytelling framework, giving young people a personalized way into the subject through a relatable “you are there” device. Readers learn about Mali’s desert geography, housing, clothing, weaponry, farmers and artisans, religious practices, education (boys were schooled; girls stayed home), governance (and brutal law enforcement), food (“grilled fish caught fresh from the Niger River…the fruit of the baobab tree”), and prominence as a major trade route for the export of salt and gold and the import of silk and slaves. (Here, Roman’s reference to slavery, which still exists in that region, is a shade too matter-of-fact: “It was sad, but slaves were considered a valuable commodity rather than people.”) Arkova’s (Can a Princess Be a Firefighter?, 2017, etc.) well-researched images mostly occupy two-thirds of each double-page spread and are rendered in a soft, warm palette inspired by Mali’s river and desert environs. Also included: pronunciation guides, a glossary, and a list of individuals—a king, an architect, a scholar, and prominent wives, among them—who were significant in shaping Mali’s history.
An informative addition to the prolific author’s well-crafted series of illustrated books that make history relatable to a tween audience.Pub Date: Dec. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5403-3727-6
Page Count: 78
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Gibbins combines historical knowledge with a sense of adventure, making this book a highly enjoyable package.
A popular novelist turns his hand to historical writing, focusing on what shipwrecks can tell us.
There’s something inherently romantic about shipwrecks: the mystery, the drama of disaster, the prospect of lost treasure. Gibbins, who’s found acclaim as an author of historical fiction, has long been fascinated with them, and his expertise in both archaeology and diving provides a tone of solid authority to his latest book. The author has personally dived on more than half the wrecks discussed in the book; for the other cases, he draws on historical records and accounts. “Wrecks offer special access to history at all…levels,” he writes. “Unlike many archaeological sites, a wreck represents a single event in which most of the objects were in use at that time and can often be closely dated. What might seem hazy in other evidence can be sharply defined, pointing the way to fresh insights.” Gibbins covers a wide variety of cases, including wrecks dating from classical times; a ship torpedoed during World War II; a Viking longship; a ship of Arab origin that foundered in Indonesian waters in the ninth century; the Mary Rose, the flagship of the navy of Henry VIII; and an Arctic exploring vessel, the Terror (for more on that ship, read Paul Watson’s Ice Ghost). Underwater excavation often produces valuable artifacts, but Gibbins is equally interested in the material that reveals the society of the time. He does an excellent job of placing each wreck within a broader context, as well as examining the human elements of the story. The result is a book that will appeal to readers with an interest in maritime history and who would enjoy a different, and enlightening, perspective.
Gibbins combines historical knowledge with a sense of adventure, making this book a highly enjoyable package.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781250325372
Page Count: 304
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 28, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Buffs of the Old West will enjoy Clavin’s careful research and vivid writing.
Rootin’-tootin’ history of the dry-gulchers, horn-swogglers, and outright killers who populated the Wild West’s wildest city in the late 19th century.
The stories of Wyatt Earp and company, the shootout at the O.K. Corral, and Geronimo and the Apache Wars are all well known. Clavin, who has written books on Dodge City and Wild Bill Hickok, delivers a solid narrative that usefully links significant events—making allies of white enemies, for instance, in facing down the Apache threat, rustling from Mexico, and other ethnically charged circumstances. The author is a touch revisionist, in the modern fashion, in noting that the Earps and Clantons weren’t as bloodthirsty as popular culture has made them out to be. For example, Wyatt and Bat Masterson “took the ‘peace’ in peace officer literally and knew that the way to tame the notorious town was not to outkill the bad guys but to intimidate them, sometimes with the help of a gun barrel to the skull.” Indeed, while some of the Clantons and some of the Earps died violently, most—Wyatt, Bat, Doc Holliday—died of cancer and other ailments, if only a few of old age. Clavin complicates the story by reminding readers that the Earps weren’t really the law in Tombstone and sometimes fell on the other side of the line and that the ordinary citizens of Tombstone and other famed Western venues valued order and peace and weren’t particularly keen on gunfighters and their mischief. Still, updating the old notion that the Earp myth is the American Iliad, the author is at his best when he delineates those fraught spasms of violence. “It is never a good sign for law-abiding citizens,” he writes at one high point, “to see Johnny Ringo rush into town, both him and his horse all in a lather.” Indeed not, even if Ringo wound up killing himself and law-abiding Tombstone faded into obscurity when the silver played out.
Buffs of the Old West will enjoy Clavin’s careful research and vivid writing.Pub Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21458-4
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
