A smartly designed, profusely illustrated history of shoes, their lore and styles. The Yues (Armor, 1994, etc.) open with a series of provocative questions to make readers focus on how they choose shoes and what statements their footwear makes about them, linking those answers to a larger picture: ``Since early times people have wanted beauty in their lives and have needed to express their individuality and, for these reasons, have created shoes of different styles and materials.'' Beginning with an illustration of the foot, the authors trace the chronology of shoes from the Oregon sandal of 10,000 years ago to the styles of the present. Detailed descriptions with accurate, elegant black- and-white drawings show how shoes are made and how fashions have changed through the centuries: sandals, brogues, oxfords, saddle shoes, cowboy boots, and even rollerblades. The traditions can be fascinating, e.g., a Greek woman could burn the shoe of a lost lover to get him back. The charms of shoes will not be lost on readers: ``Shoes are our contact point with the earth. . . . They can be artistic; they can be witty.'' With endpapers showing a progression of styles and heel heights, from the sturdiest of oxfords to the strappiest of sandals, this is an enchanting book, surpassing even Laurie Lawlor's Where Will This Shoe Take You? (1996). (bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: April 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-395-72667-0
Page Count: 92
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1997
African-Americans have fought in all this country's wars, and have always had to battle racism as well as the enemy; Super shows how Vietnam was a particularly bitter experience for them—made physically more dangerous by ingrained prejudice in the military, and rendered more of an inner trial by its aftermath and by the rising expectations fostered by the civil-rights movement. Despite a large cast of named participants, plus telling statistics and examples of discrimination and of heroism under fire, the book is more analytical than anecdotal, emphasizing the fact of racism over its specific manifestations. Super closes by pointing out that black veterans still suffer much higher rates of homelessness and unemployment than their white counterparts, and share a general sense that even now their contributions to the war are only beginning to be appreciated. Most useful as a source for middle- grade reports. Small selection of dark b&w photos; perfunctory bibliography; index. Another new entry in the African American Soldiers series, Kathryn Browne Pfeifer's Henry O. Flipper (ISBN: 0-8050-2351-8) covers the unhappy career of West Point's first black graduate. (Nonfiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-8050-2307-0
Page Count: 80
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1993
The war experiences of six young people: Hans Levy (b. 1928), who escaped to Britain (his parents died at Theresienstadt); AndrÇe-Paule Godley (b. 1923), daughter of a French diplomat, who joined the Resistance; and, born in the mid- 1930's, a London girl, a German boy evacuated from Berlin, a British boy interned in the Philippines, and a Japanese girl. Their stories exemplify an international range of experience, but unfortunately Marx's reporting is so dry that, even though she herself interviewed these people, not even their own first-person comments bring them to life; she offers few of the poignantly telling details that distinguish Michael Foreman's War Boy (1990) and Howard Greenfield's 1993 book, The Hidden Children (which was researched and presented in a similar manner), or the host of other memoirs. Archival photos that are only indirectly related to the text also contribute to the impersonal flavor, as does the absence of any information about the subjects' later lives. Still, an overview that will have its uses. Maps; index. (Biography. 9-12)
Pub Date: March 16, 1994
ISBN: 0-8225-4898-4
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Lerner
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1994
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