by Deborah Durland DeSaix & Karen Gray Ruelle ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2007
The people of the small towns and farms in La Montagne Protestante region of Southern France established homes and schools to rescue children fleeing almost certain transport to Nazi concentration camps. They came from all over Europe, and most were alone. With careful research and interviews, the authors provide background information of several who survived, to create narratives about their experiences before fleeing to Le Chambon and life there. Photographs and sketches accompany their tales, told in diary-like entries: age, date, place and personal stories in short, fast informative chapters. This story is inspiring—not because of the writing style, which is neutral, clear and pedestrian, but because the authors have brought the inspiring deeds of the Chambonese to life. Why did they do it? “Because we could not NOT do it,” said a woman interviewed about the acts of ordinary people who became quiet heroes. An absolute must. (Maps, index, bibliography, photographs, notes, glossary, pronunciation guide, source notes) (Nonfiction. 6-12)
Pub Date: April 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-8234-1928-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2007
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by Virginia Veeder Westervelt ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 15, 1999
A serviceable biography of one of the US’s most extraordinary citizens, but not nearly in the class of Barbara Cooney’s Eleanor (1996) or Russell Freedman’s Eleanor: A Life of Discovery (1993). Westervelt has to sustain a breathless pace to fit the rich story of Eleanor Roosevelt’s life into these pages. She begins with the image of the golden-haired, painfully shy child, whose plainness was disdained by a beautiful mother, and whose adored, alcoholic father was mostly absent. She found refuge in study and in service to others from a very young age; when she married her cousin Franklin, she was given away by her uncle, President Theodore Roosevelt. That began decades of public life during which she supported her husband as he rose through public offices to the presidency, raised their children, fought off a domineering mother-in-law, and carved out her own life of tireless speaking, writing, and social action. Westervelt touches very lightly on the subject of Lucy Mercer and Eleanor’s possible liaisons, keeping the focus on the tremendous number of activities Eleanor undertook during WWII and beyond Franklin’s death. The lengthy biography unaccountably leaves off Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book; this is a useful biography, but not a magical one. (index) (Biography. 9-12)
Pub Date: Jan. 15, 1999
ISBN: 1-888105-33-X
Page Count: 142
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1998
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edited by Mary E. Lyons ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2002
In the summer and fall of 1845, a plant fungus hit Ireland. In the following seven years, one million people died and another one-and-a-half million people fled the country. It was one of the terrible disasters of the 19th century, the magnitude of which will surprise most readers. This first-person account of the time is derived from oral-history projects such as that conducted in the 1940s by the Irish Folklore Commission, which collected stories from children and grandchildren of survivors. Unlike the photographic record of American slavery and the Holocaust, no known photographs of the Great Hunger exist. Lyons combines oral history with paintings from the period and sketches made by newspapermen who traveled the country in 1847. Young readers may be confused by the inclusion of photographs when the author states in the first section that no photographs of the period exist; however, the photographs she uses date from the end of the 19th century, when the fungus struck again. This attractive volume seems insubstantial on its own but will make a good match with Susan Campbell Bartoletti’s recent Black Potatoes (p. 1419), which tells the story of the famine in greater depth. Lyons emphasizes that hunger is still a worldwide problem. In 1995, six million children under the age of five died from lack of nutritious food. As Lyons says, “The Irish famine is worth remembering when hunger organizations ask us to help them feed the children first.” This will be a useful volume for library collections on Ireland, immigration, cities, hunger, and the 19th century. (Web sites, bibliography) (Nonfiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-689-84226-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2001
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