An engaging, informative, multigenerational tale underscoring the legacy of the Rosenwald School program.
An African American boy learns about the Canetuck Rosenwald School in this picture book.
On the way to visit Grandma in North Carolina, Tommy’s Dad explains that when the woman was young, “she had to sit in the segregated train car, and it was hard for her to find a place to eat.” Tommy learns more about Grandma’s experiences when she takes him to a community center that used to be her school. Tommy asks about the photographs of Booker T. Washington and Julius Rosenwald on the wall. His Aunt Lee, who also attended the school, explains: “Booker T. Washington had an idea to help our communities build schools. He knew our families would give money…but they needed some help,” and he sought financial assistance from his friend Julius Rosenwald, the president of Sears. When Tommy shares a medal he received at school “for reading 100 books,” Lee says: “Your great-great grandparents would be proud.” The characters’ recollections of attending a Rosenwald School offer engaging, firsthand insights into the segregation-era building program that helped “make schools more available for African American students.” Stack’s story will encourage readers to learn more about this important historical project. Bryant’s lively, realistic, full-color, digital illustrations incorporate the present and past. For example, when Grandma’s schoolmate Mr. Frank tells Tommy how families hosted fundraising events for the school, the background features a sepia-toned scene of kids against a “Canetuck Spelling Bee 1955” banner.
An engaging, informative, multigenerational tale underscoring the legacy of the Rosenwald School program.Pub Date: Dec. 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-954529-16-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: March 11, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
After the sorry example of the 2000 presidential election, it’s good to be reminded of the simple beauty—and hard-won right—of voting for a candidate. And Christelow goes farther in this primer on the process of electing a candidate. Simple language, gay color, and humorous subplots make for an appealing introduction to electoral politics, and she wisely complements her somewhat dry explanatory text with a typically funny word-bubble story of one woman’s mayoral campaign. Readers learn about political parties and polls, voter registration, to be wary of campaign advertising, the right to recounts, and are urged to conduct research into the candidates. There’s also a very handy timeline of voting rights that conveys the eye-opening evolution of democracy in the US. Impressively, Christelow gives to each individual vote a sense of importance—an act of participation that nestles in the heart of democracy. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2003
ISBN: 0-618-24754-8
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2003
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A good-enough introduction to a contested festivity but one that’s not in step with the community it’s for.
An overview of the modern African-American holiday.
This book arrives at a time when black people in the United States have had intraracial—some serious, some snarky—conversations about Kwanzaa’s relevance nowadays, from its patchwork inspiration that flattens the cultural diversity of the African continent to a single festive story to, relatedly, the earnest blacker-than-thou pretentiousness surrounding it. Both the author and consultant Keith A. Mayes take great pains—and in painfully simplistic language—to provide a context that attempts to refute the internal arguments as much as it informs its intended audience. In fact, Mayes says in the endnotes that young people are Kwanzaa’s “largest audience and most important constituents” and further extends an invitation to all races and ages to join the winter celebration. However, his “young people represent the future” counterpoint—and the book itself—really responds to an echo of an argument, as black communities have moved the conversation out to listen to African communities who critique the holiday’s loose “African-ness” and deep American-ness and moved on to commemorate holidays that have a more historical base in black people’s experiences in the United States, such as Juneteenth. In this context, the explications of Kwanzaa’s principles and symbols and the smattering of accompanying activities feel out of touch.
A good-enough introduction to a contested festivity but one that’s not in step with the community it’s for. (resources, bibliography, glossary, afterword) (Nonfiction. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4263-2849-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: National Geographic Kids
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2017
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