Will hook environmental activists as well as fans of rod and reel.
A salute to a woman who brought the pleasures of Maine’s woods and streams to a national audience.
Born in 1854, Cornelia “Fly Rod” Crosby went on to become an author and journalist particularly renowned for her fishing stories. Along with stimulating both the tourist industry (she coined the catchphrase “Maine, the Nation’s Playground”) and a love of outdoorsy pursuits in general, she became the state’s first officially licensed tour guide and a wilderness advocate to the end of her long life. Readers primed for specific anecdotes or yarns that would capture the flavor of her writing will have to look elsewhere, but Mealey does reel off the major events of her life in breezy prose laced with appreciative comments—and then closes with writing prompts and pointers for budding authors tempted to craft “fish stories” of their own. Rivers, some filled with colorful trout and other fish, flow through Michael’s illustrations of the smiling, confident-looking outdoorswoman casting a line or tossing back her catch (she was an early advocate of catch and release) and, indoors, either sitting at her writing desk or posing amid outdoor wear and gear at expositions. She and those around her are pale-skinned, but there is some racial diversity in closing scenes of modern hikers and museumgoers.
Will hook environmental activists as well as fans of rod and reel. (sources) (Picture-book biography. 6-8)Pub Date: April 15, 2026
ISBN: 9781534113602
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses.
An NBA star pays tribute to the influence of his grandfather.
In the same vein as his Long Shot (2009), illustrated by Frank Morrison, this latest from Paul prioritizes values and character: “My granddad Papa Chilly had dreams that came true,” he writes, “so maybe if I listen and watch him, / mine will too.” So it is that the wide-eyed Black child in the simply drawn illustrations rises early to get to the playground hoops before anyone else, watches his elder working hard and respecting others, hears him cheering along with the rest of the family from the stands during games, and recalls in a prose afterword that his grandfather wasn’t one to lecture but taught by example. Paul mentions in both the text and the backmatter that Papa Chilly was the first African American to own a service station in North Carolina (his presumed dream) but not that he was killed in a robbery, which has the effect of keeping the overall tone positive and the instructional content one-dimensional. Figures in the pictures are mostly dark-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-81003-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
A unique angle on a watershed moment in the civil rights era.
The New Orleans school child who famously broke the color line in 1960 while surrounded by federal marshals describes the early days of her experience from a 6-year-old’s perspective.
Bridges told her tale to younger children in 2009’s Ruby Bridges Goes to School, but here the sensibility is more personal, and the sometimes-shocking historical photos have been replaced by uplifting painted scenes. “I didn’t find out what being ‘the first’ really meant until the day I arrived at this new school,” she writes. Unfrightened by the crowd of “screaming white people” that greets her at the school’s door (she thinks it’s like Mardi Gras) but surprised to find herself the only child in her classroom, and even the entire building, she gradually realizes the significance of her act as (in Smith’s illustration) she compares a small personal photo to the all-White class photos posted on a bulletin board and sees the difference. As she reflects on her new understanding, symbolic scenes first depict other dark-skinned children marching into classes in her wake to friendly greetings from lighter-skinned classmates (“School is just school,” she sensibly concludes, “and kids are just kids”) and finally an image of the bright-eyed icon posed next to a soaring bridge of reconciliation. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A unique angle on a watershed moment in the civil rights era. (author and illustrator notes, glossary) (Autobiographical picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-75388-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
PERSPECTIVES
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