This car-centered history lesson is a lemon.
Three titans of industry (and one writer) rough it.
Inventor Thomas Edison and car manufacturer Henry Ford are tired from their jobs making “life easier for others.” They decide to go on vacation and motor off to explore the country in one of Ford’s Model T’s. They invite along their friend nature writer John Burroughs; the next summer, Ford and Edison take another trip, this time with tire kingpin Harvey Firestone. Finally, all four of them decide to travel together, and the foursome innovate the road trip. The book describes the places they visited, the activities they enjoyed, and how these stuffy old figures from history “acted more like kids at camp than men on vacation.” Busy illustrations in a muted palette, reminiscent of sepia films highlighted with green and orange, help make this feel like an old-timey movie. While some children, especially those with an interest in history, will get a kick out of this lighthearted but informational text, the niche topic will limit its audience. Furthermore, the overall cheerful tone means that Henry Ford—an outspoken Nazi sympathizer admired greatly by Adolf Hitler—comes off as a peculiar but lovable gentleman, a complicated authorial choice. Extensive backmatter includes photographs, a map, and further anecdotes from the foursome’s joint vacations, which stretched over a decade. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
This car-centered history lesson is a lemon. (afterword, bibliography, further resources, photo credits) (Informational picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-68437-272-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Calkins Creek/Astra Books for Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2022
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 picture book more than worthy of sharing the shelf with Alan Schroeder and Jerry Pinkney’s Minty (1996) and Carole Boston...
A memorable, lyrical reverse-chronological walk through the life of an American icon.
In free verse, Cline-Ransome narrates the life of Harriet Tubman, starting and ending with a train ride Tubman takes as an old woman. “But before wrinkles formed / and her eyes failed,” Tubman could walk tirelessly under a starlit sky. Cline-Ransome then describes the array of roles Tubman played throughout her life, including suffragist, abolitionist, Union spy, and conductor on the Underground Railroad. By framing the story around a literal train ride, the Ransomes juxtapose the privilege of traveling by rail against Harriet’s earlier modes of travel, when she repeatedly ran for her life. Racism still abounds, however, for she rides in a segregated train. While the text introduces readers to the details of Tubman’s life, Ransome’s use of watercolor—such a striking departure from his oil illustrations in many of his other picture books—reveals Tubman’s humanity, determination, drive, and hope. Ransome’s lavishly detailed and expansive double-page spreads situate young readers in each time and place as the text takes them further into the past.
A picture book more than worthy of sharing the shelf with Alan Schroeder and Jerry Pinkney’s Minty (1996) and Carole Boston Weatherford and Kadir Nelson’s Moses (2006). (Picture book/biography. 5-8)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2047-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
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