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
Self-serving to be sure but also chock-full of worthy values and sentiments.
The junior senator from California introduces family and friends as everyday superheroes.
The endpapers are covered with cascades of, mostly, early childhood snapshots (“This is me contemplating the future”—caregivers of toddlers will recognize that abstracted look). In between, Harris introduces heroes in her life who have shaped her character: her mom and dad, whose superpowers were, respectively, to make her feel special and brave; an older neighbor known for her kindness; grandparents in India and Jamaica who “[stood] up for what’s right” (albeit in unspecified ways); other relatives and a teacher who opened her awareness to a wider world; and finally iconic figures such as Thurgood Marshall and Constance Baker Motley who “protected people by using the power of words and ideas” and whose examples inspired her to become a lawyer. “Heroes are…YOU!” she concludes, closing with a bulleted Hero Code and a timeline of her legal and political career that ends with her 2017 swearing-in as senator. In group scenes, some of the figures in the bright, simplistic digital illustrations have Asian features, some are in wheelchairs, nearly all are people of color. Almost all are smiling or grinning. Roe provides everyone identified as a role model with a cape and poses the author, who is seen at different ages wearing an identifying heart pin or decoration, next to each.
Self-serving to be sure but also chock-full of worthy values and sentiments. (Picture book/memoir. 5-8)Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-984837-49-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Jan. 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
IN THE NEWS
IN THE NEWS
IN THE NEWS
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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