This entry in the Trailblazers series offers readers an admiring look at photographer Margaret Bourke-White. In 1904, when Margaret was born, women were not allowed to vote and were not encouraged to have careers, but Margaret’s parents pressed all three of their children to “do their best and become independent.” For Margaret that meant exploring, and she became excited by all that she saw in nature. Her father, an inventor, was interested in the camera, a preoccupation he passed on to Margaret. At Columbia University, Margaret took a course in photography, and from there never looked back. Her single-minded focus on her photography and career left her with two failed marriages, no children, and a life with virtually no friends as she suffered with Parkinson’s disease alone at the end of her life. Welch (Clouds of Terror, 1994) portrays Margaret sympathetically, and if readers are troubled to learn that she couldn’t have it all, they will respect the woman who followed her dream, and seek out more complex biographies for the rest of the story. (b&w photos, notes, bibliography, index) (Biography. 9-12)
Pub Date: June 3, 1998
ISBN: 1-57505-049-8
Page Count: 104
Publisher: Carolrhoda
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
Bolden follows up MLK: Journey of a King (2007) with this shorter but equally lucid profile of the second-most-well-known African-American. Outfitted with a great array of sharply reproduced contemporary photos and prints (many in color), plus a generous admixture of Carver’s own paintings and botanical illustrations, the narrative takes him from birth (in slavery) to honor-laden old age and death. It focuses particularly on his relentless pursuit of an education, his sense of purpose, his wide range of talents and his ever-more-relevant conviction that all of our basic physical needs can be served by renewable natural resources. Cogently argued, enlivened with unusual details—such as Carver’s ambiguous reference to otherwise unknown “sisters,” or the fact that he was not the inventor of peanut butter—and handsomely packaged, this floats easily atop the ongoing flood of Carver biographies for young readers. Published in conjunction with an exhibition at Chicago’s Field Museum. (source list) (Biography. 10-12)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8109-9366-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Einstein shows no signs of losing his spot as Most Famous Scientist Ever, and here Meltzer makes a brave attempt to explain to younger middle-grade readers why that should be so. Discussions of Einstein’s pacifism and deep involvement in human-rights issues share at least equal time with his scientific insights and discoveries. The polished, math-free narrative covers the biographical high spots, from Einstein’s youth and schooling (“girls liked this good-looking teenager”) through his ground-breaking explanations of the relationship between matter and energy, time and space. Then it chronicles his opposition to World War I, his move to the United States as Hitler came to power, his renowned letter to FDR (the first page of which is reproduced, as one of a small selection of period photos) and his later career as scientific icon. Falling in length and level of detail between Don Brown’s Odd Boy Out (2004) and Marfé Ferguson Delano’s Genius: A Photobiography of Albert Einstein (2005), this profile will give both thinking children and adult new readers a clear sense of the man’s searching intellect and fierce heart. (Biography. 10-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8234-1966-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2008
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