Kudos to a title that recognizes a previously uncelebrated African-American woman of achievement.
Society ladies and screen actresses made Ann Cole Lowe’s gowns famous, but no one credited their African-American designer.
The great-granddaughter of a slave, Ann grew up in Alabama sewing with her mother. When she was just 16, her mother died, but Ann kept on with the work, finishing a gown for the wife of the governor. She was able to attend design school in New York City in 1917, albeit sitting alone in a segregated classroom. As the proprietor of her own business, Ann was in much demand with very wealthy and high-profile women. Olivia de Havilland accepted her 1947 Oscar wearing an Ann Cole Lowe gown. In 1953, a rich socialite named Jaqueline Bouvier married a Massachusetts senator named John F. Kennedy wearing one of Lowe’s couture creations. Lowe worked hard and eventually began to receive long-overdue recognition. Freeman’s crisply colorful artwork enlivens the clear and accessible narration. The endpapers featuring pictures of Lowe’s runway-perfect gowns and fabric swatches in the page design will delight young fashionistas, while the vignette of Ann in a classroom sitting by herself against a solid white background speaks volumes.
Kudos to a title that recognizes a previously uncelebrated African-American woman of achievement. (author’s note) (Picture book/biography. 5-8)Pub Date: Jan. 17, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0239-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Of greater use in STEM units than in American history studies.
An African-American inventor of the 18th-century designs and builds a new-style clock.
A young Benjamin Banneker is fascinated by mechanical things. After taking apart a borrowed pocket watch, he studies all the parts and how they work. Fascinated, he is determined to build a big clock and spends the next two years doing just that. Keller does a good job detailing the process: what works and what does not. Banneker sketches and designs and even realizes that he can age the wood he is using in the same manner that his family cures tobacco on their Maryland farm. After much trial and error and scientific thought, Banneker succeeds. Unfortunately, it is only in the author’s note that readers learn that Banneker was born a free black in 1731. Even in a title stressing his inventive genius, his uncommon free status should warrant explicit mention and explanation within the text. Gardner’s soft-toned watercolor illustrations follow the seasonal changes in Maryland while also depicting Banneker’s many other talents, such as playing the flute. It is a peaceful, idyllic existence in a quiet and pleasant book.
Of greater use in STEM units than in American history studies. (Picture book/biography. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-58536-956-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
She didn’t like people passing her on the trail, the author notes, but readers could do worse than follow behind.
A tribute to the first woman to hike the entire Appalachian Trail in one go.
Houts milks the tale for its inspirational value. The industrious mother of 11 and an inveterate walker, 67-year-old Emma Gatewood reads a magazine story about men who had taken the 2,000-mile hike and: “ ‘Hmmph,’ thought spunky old Emma. ‘If a man can do it, so can I!’ ” Her first try, starting from Maine’s Mount Katahdin, quickly ends in failure—her sturdy, no-nonsense white frame reduced, in Magnus’ painted scene, to a picture of misery, covered in scratches and black fly welts. She hits her stride on the second try, going south to north through verdant woods and living comfortably off the land for nearly five months in 1955. “I did it. I said I’d do it, and I’ve done it!” (Just for good measure, she went on to do it twice more.) Aside from a pair of farm children who greet her along the way and one face in a crowd scene, everyone in the illustrations is white. The author leaves out the not-always-pleasant details of Gatewood’s private life (covered, for older audiences, in Ben Montgomery’s Grandma Gatewood’s Walk, 2014) but adds more about her later treks, plus a photo, at the end, then closes by inviting readers to “think of Grandma Gatewood as you set your sights on your own goals. No matter what mountains might stand in your way.”
She didn’t like people passing her on the trail, the author notes, but readers could do worse than follow behind. (source note) (Picture book/biography. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8214-2235-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Ohio Univ.
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
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