A vivid reminder that it took a community to fight segregation and the community responded.
Readers can decide whether, were they in Audrey’s shoes, they would make the same dangerous decision.
Nine-year-old Audrey and her mother are happily preparing a meal for their special guest, whom they call Mike—otherwise known as Martin Luther King Jr. It is this environment that helps her decide to march in Birmingham in May 1963 and get arrested—all to fight segregation peacefully. The adults are too fearful to march, so Audrey proudly volunteers to join other children and go to “j-a-a-il!” Her parents and her grandparents support her decision, and so, to the sounds of civil rights–era music, she is arrested. The time behind bars is unpleasant, but the cells soon fill up. Audrey comes home after seven days to her favorite food: “hot rolls, baptized in butter.” Eating at an integrated lunch counter follows. Levinson, who wrote for older readers in We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children’s March (2012), here carefully tailors her text to a level suitable for a younger audience. Newton’s digital illustrations burst with color against a white background. Audrey smiles and looks fearful, as appropriate. A double-page spread of her in a jail cell, all in gray, is especially effective.
A vivid reminder that it took a community to fight segregation and the community responded. (author’s note, timeline, recipe, sources) (Informational picture book. 7-10)Pub Date: Jan. 17, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-0070-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The legions of fans who over the years have enjoyed dePaola’s autobiographical picture books will welcome this longer gathering of reminiscences. Writing in an authentically childlike voice, he describes watching the new house his father was building go up despite a succession of disasters, from a brush fire to the hurricane of 1938. Meanwhile, he also introduces family, friends, and neighbors, adds Nana Fall River to his already well-known Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs, remembers his first day of school (“ ‘ When do we learn to read?’ I asked. ‘Oh, we don’t learn how to read in kindergarten. We learn to read next year, in first grade.’ ‘Fine,’ I said. ‘I’ll be back next year.’ And I walked right out of school.”), recalls holidays, and explains his indignation when the plot of Disney’s “Snow White” doesn’t match the story he knows. Generously illustrated with vignettes and larger scenes, this cheery, well-knit narrative proves that an old dog can learn new tricks, and learn them surpassingly well. (Autobiography. 7-9)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-399-23246-X
Page Count: 58
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1999
Abigail Adams, wife and mother of American presidents, with a remarkable story of her own, gets a rather dull introduction to her life in Wallner's (Sergio and the Hurricane, 2000, etc.) picture-book biography. Wallner's text plods through Abigail's life, noting important dates and events, particularly the birth of all her children. Abigail supports her husband in his fight for independence at home, where she runs the family farm and manages the finances and her growing family. She also joins Adams in England when he is ambassador there. Later, she becomes the first president's wife to live in the White House. Abigail is shown as a strong woman, disappointed in her efforts to win a place for women and blacks in the new Constitution. Readers learn about Abigail's thoughts and personality as she matures from child to adult, from homemaker to public figure, but unfortunately we do not hear more than a few phrases in Abigail's own voice. Abigail, who is known through her many published letters, was a lively and interesting correspondent and little of that liveliness permeates this effort. The author's folkart-style illustrations depict a homely group of colonialists in pleasantly colorful detail. A timeline and bibliography would have been helpful to young researchers. This intelligent, early feminist and civil-rights advocate deserves better. (Biography. 8-10)
Pub Date: March 15, 2001
ISBN: 0-8234-1442-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2001
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