A story that will bring Civil War history alive for adolescent readers and will make a useful addition to middle school...
A slave boy travels from a Maryland plantation to freedom in Canada via the Underground Railroad in this debut middle-grade historical novel.
Noonan convincingly re-creates the voice of 12-year-old slave Moses, who works in the tobacco fields at Maryland’s Oakley Plantation. His mother is going to be sold, which he takes as a cue to escape: “If they was gonna rip me away from her like seed outta cotton, then I was gonna be free.” After seeing his mother off at the train station, he slips into the woods and travels to his first Underground Railroad stop, a flour mill owned by Quakers. From there, he crosses Pennsylvania, shuttling mostly between anti-slavery activists and members of the clergy. Along the way, abolitionists and free, educated blacks teach him basic literacy. Moses’ visual description of the letters of his own name—“Mountains. A wheel. And snakes with Jacob’s ladder right in between”—provides a good example of his literal, folksy vocabulary. His homespun metaphors are as charming as they are everyday (“My eyes musta growed big as those biscuits I had for breakfast”; “A woman’s voice drifted through the air like butter on grits”). During a stay with a reverend, Moses meets Tillie, a runaway slave–turned-maid. When the Fugitive Slave Act passes, Moses and Tillie decide to continue on to Canada. On their fraught journey, they fend off wolves, hire a part-Iroquois guide, and hide in an outhouse and church bell tower. The writer and statesman Frederick Douglass makes a delightful cameo appearance when the couple meet at his print shop; he encourages Moses to continue writing his own narrative about escaping slavery. Moses and Tillie frequently encounter minor characters, and these helpers are all so distinctive that they never blend together. The escape storyline, by its very nature, has some built-in repetition, but the author’s careful insertion of historical research about slavery laws and escape routes, and the suspense of slave-catchers being hot on the young people’s trail, keeps the narrative rollicking along. Despite a melodramatic climax, younger teenage readers should find inspiration as well as information here.
A story that will bring Civil War history alive for adolescent readers and will make a useful addition to middle school curricula.Pub Date: June 12, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-62208-534-7
Page Count: 156
Publisher: Helping Hands Press
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A nice but not requisite purchase.
A retelling of the classic fairy tale in board-book format and with a Mexican setting.
Though simplified for a younger audience, the text still relates the well-known tale: mean-spirited stepmother, spoiled stepsisters, overworked Cinderella, fairy godmother, glass slipper, charming prince, and, of course, happily-ever-after. What gives this book its flavor is the artwork. Within its Mexican setting, the characters are olive-skinned and dark-haired. Cultural references abound, as when a messenger comes carrying a banner announcing a “FIESTA” in beautiful papel picado. Cinderella is the picture of beauty, with her hair up in ribbons and flowers and her typically Mexican many-layered white dress. The companion volume, Snow White, set in Japan and illustrated by Misa Saburi, follows the same format. The simplified text tells the story of the beautiful princess sent to the forest by her wicked stepmother to be “done away with,” the dwarves that take her in, and, eventually, the happily-ever-after ending. Here too, what gives the book its flavor is the artwork. The characters wear traditional clothing, and the dwarves’ house has the requisite shoji screens, tatami mats and cherry blossoms in the garden. The puzzling question is, why the board-book presentation? Though the text is simplified, it’s still beyond the board-book audience, and the illustrations deserve full-size books.
A nice but not requisite purchase. (Board book/fairy tale. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-7915-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Playful, engaging, and full of opportunities for empathy—a raucous storytime hit.
Readers try to dislodge a monster from the pages of this emotive and interactive read-aloud.
“OH NO!” the story starts. “There’s a monster in your book!” The blue, round-headed monster with pink horns and a pink-tipped tail can be seen cheerfully munching on the opening page. “Let’s try to get him out,” declares the narrator. Readers are encouraged to shake, tilt, and spin the book around, while the monster careens around an empty background looking scared and lost. Viewers are exhorted to tickle the monster’s feet, blow on the page, and make a really loud noise. Finally, shockingly, it works: “Now he’s in your room!” But clearly a monster in your book is safer than a monster in your room, so he’s coaxed back into the illustrations and lulled to sleep, curled up under one page and cuddling a bit of another like a child with their blankie. The monster’s entirely cute appearance and clear emotional reactions to his treatment add to the interactive aspect, and some young readers might even resist the instructions to avoid hurting their new pal. Children will be brought along on the monster’s journey, going from excited, noisy, and wiggly to calm and steady (one can hope).
Playful, engaging, and full of opportunities for empathy—a raucous storytime hit. (Picture book. 2-7)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5247-6456-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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