Helpful and inspirational.
Activist Kelaher rallies supporters for two crusades: rescuing farmed or lab animals and refusing to eat them or use their products.
The Aussie founder of NSW Hen Rescue dishes up a spicy mix of interviews and advocacy to promote the idea that switching to a vegan diet and vigorously opposing any sort of animal use go hand in hoof (paw, fin, claw). Her main ingredients are short Q&A exchanges with budding animal activists around the world but mostly in Australia and the U.S. They are all vegans and mostly teenagers—though some are far younger—who speak about both their favored methods of raising awareness and specific areas of concern, ranging from livestock abuse and slaughter to plastic pollutants, cruelty in the pet industry, wildlife rescue, and classroom dissections. One interesting section presents veganism through the lens of intersectionality. Along with breezy reassurances that any dish can be reinvented as vegan and introductions to some of her own feathered rescuees, Kelaher folds in checklists, a sample press release, and other useful tools. If some suggested activities skate legality’s ragged edge (slapping protest stickers on grocery store shelves or items), at least they’re nonviolent and generally feasible for younger audiences. The few photos that aren’t portraits of interviewees (who are mostly White, with some Asian and Black representation) or healthy-looking rescued chickens are at worst only mildly disturbing. The tone overall is friendly, chatty, and highly engaging.
Helpful and inspirational. (online resources) (Nonfiction. 12-16)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-61822-094-3
Page Count: 310
Publisher: Ashland Creek Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
For a guide to fashion, there's not much flair here. But there's plenty of valuable info for budding fashionistas and...
A matter-of-fact tone removes the mystery from style in this work that is one-part fashion manual and one-part career guide.
Flaherty begins by explaining what a stylist is and the tools he or she uses. She moves on to a wide range of different looks like Socialite, Tomboy and Hipster; fashion elements like color and prints; and a thorough understanding of body type. While the number of fashion personalities is impressive, not one is male, a confusing omission given that boys wear clothes, too. The section on body types is very useful with its real-world examples, Naomi Campbell representing the Inverted Triangle type. The second half is more practical, focusing on "curating" a closet, building a wardrobe, styling oneself and others, and styling as a career. Sprinkled throughout the text are activities like a fashion-movie night and organizing a clothing swap. The illustrations are attractive, yet it's too bad there isn't a greater variety of body types represented.
For a guide to fashion, there's not much flair here. But there's plenty of valuable info for budding fashionistas and stylists, going beyond the shallow glitz of fashion magazines and blogs. (index) (Nonfiction. 12-16)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-9827322-4-3
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Zest Books
Review Posted Online: July 24, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2012
Considerably more edgy satire than Happily Ever After here; a bracing take for teens.
From Puss in Boots’ swaggering descendant “Puss-in-Trainers” to the titular break-and-enter artist caught on security cameras, Agard lays urban-inflected modern twists on 29 folkloric characters.
Written in rhyme or free verse with hip-hop cadences, the poems are nearly all in first person and range in tone from funny or acid (“Bring on your shining armour, dude. / I’ll be your damsel in distress with attitude”), to dark, even threatening. Many offer fresh approaches to the familiar, such as quick portraits of Cinderella in biker leathers and Iron Jack as an emotionally vulnerable Gulf War vet. An apple and a magic mirror provide unusual points of view about their assigned roles, as do “Two Ugly Sisters” who defiantly declare that they “won’t be face-down in no make-up kit / We give the thumbs-up to hair in the armpit,” but end with a sobering “Never mind the eye, we enchant the ear / From our ugly mouths come song, come prayer.” The poems are printed in a variety of typefaces, and Kitamura’s heavily inked black-and-white cartoons or silhouettes likewise change looks while adding appropriately dark, angular, energetic visual notes.
Considerably more edgy satire than Happily Ever After here; a bracing take for teens. (Poetry. 12-16)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-84780-183-8
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2012
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