by D. Ralph Young ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 8, 2012
An engaging personal look at the 20th century and one man’s place in it.
Young recounts the events of his life, from his tough early years during the Great Depression to his profession, travels, children and marriages.
Young, the youngest of 11 children, grew up on a farm in Kentucky. His family and most of his community was so poor that a teacher taught students to clean their teeth with tree branches and baking soda. With that humble beginning, Young tells his life story, which includes a stint in the Navy during World War II, a career in engineering, travels all over the world and raising a family. The book splits fairly evenly between family and work stories, both of which depict Young’s personality—hardworking, serious and devoted to his family but also wryly funny. Young includes family photos, letters and other documents to illustrate his story, giving it the feel of a family album. While the book would be a treasure for anyone related to Young, it also serves as a crash course in 20th-century history and culture. Young provides context for his life activities, such as describing what he was doing when the Pearl Harbor attack occurred and how he entered the Navy. The title refers to the prayers Young’s mother made when he joined the Navy, and he repeatedly thanks her throughout the text for praying and keeping him safe. The narrative breaks into many chapters, some so short they include paragraphs of only a few sentences. The result is a quick read and a style that often feels like simple sketches of life events, like a list of everything Young did without much consideration for how it affects the larger story. The numerous personal and family details might not appeal to readers beyond friends and family; in fact, readers might wish someone in their family had written a book like this to keep family history alive.
An engaging personal look at the 20th century and one man’s place in it.Pub Date: Aug. 8, 2012
ISBN: 978-1466944572
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Trafford
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Elie Wiesel & translated by Marion Wiesel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 16, 2006
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
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IndieBound Bestseller
by Steve Martin illustrated by Harry Bliss ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 17, 2020
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
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IndieBound Bestseller
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
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