A great tale about one bad biker.
She’s one cool rider.
Biographical information and poetry combine in this biker-book bonanza about Bessie Stringfield, a Black motorcycle aficionado who crisscrossed the United States in the late 1920s and early 1930s. When traveling, Bessie relied on fate—specifically a penny and a map—to determine where she’d head next; during her travels she performed in circuses and in races. The story does not shy away from the racism Bessie encountered in her travels; when she couldn’t find anywhere that would let her spend the night, she slept alone on her bike. As Smith notes, biographical information on Stringfield is scant, as little has been written about her, but the author’s note and the brief bibliography will help curious readers learn more, including her love of telling a good yarn. The text rides a fairly smooth road: “Bessie slung her jacket / over her back, / reached under her chin / and undid her strap, / slid off her helmet / with style and grace, / then stunned the crowd / with her hidden brown face.” But the real leaders of the pack are the illustrations, which incorporate color in exciting ways while providing Bessie a classic vibe for her adventures. Unexpected pops of purple, pink, and teal create a strong visual interest that will help draw readers into Bessie’s story. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A great tale about one bad biker. (Picture-book biography. 8-10)Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-3387-5247-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
The author of Cod’s Tale (2001) again demonstrates a dab hand at recasting his adult work for a younger audience. Here the topic is salt, “the only rock eaten by human beings,” and, as he engrossingly demonstrates, “the object of wars and revolutions” throughout recorded history and before. Between his opening disquisition on its chemical composition and a closing timeline, he explores salt’s sources and methods of extraction, its worldwide economic influences from prehistoric domestication of animals to Gandhi’s Salt March, its many uses as a preservative and industrial product, its culinary and even, as the source for words like “salary” and “salad,” its linguistic history. Along with lucid maps and diagrams, Schindler supplies detailed, sometimes fanciful scenes to go along, finishing with a view of young folk chowing down on orders of French fries as ghostly figures from history look on. Some of Kurlansky’s claims are exaggerated (the Erie and other canals were built to transport more than just salt, for instance), and there are no leads to further resources, but this salutary (in more ways than one) micro-history will have young readers lifting their shakers in tribute. (Picture book/nonfiction. 8-10)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-399-23998-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2006
Ringgold’s biography of Rosa Parks packs substantial material into a few pages, but with a light touch, and with the ring of authenticity that gives her act of weary resistance all the respect it deserves. Narrating the book is the bus that Parks took that morning 45 years ago; it recounts the signal events in Parks’s life to a young girl who boarded it to go to school. A decent amount of the material will probably be new to children, for Parks is so intimately associated with the Montgomery Bus Boycott that her work with the NAACP before the bus incident is often overlooked, as is her later role as a community activist in Detroit with Congressman John Conyers. Ringgold, through the bus, also informs readers of Parks’s youth in rural Alabama, where Klansmen and nightriders struck fear into the lives of African-Americans. These experiences make her refusal to release her seat all the more courageous, for the consequences of resistance were not gentle. All the events are depicted in emotive naive artwork that underscores their truth; Ringgold delivers Parks’s story without hyperbole, but rather as a life lived with pride, conviction, and consequence. (Picture book/biography. 5-9)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-689-81892-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
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