An informative portrait of an activist and advocate whose accomplishments are still evident today.
Why do we all owe Frances Perkins a thank you?
Framed with the questions “How many years will it be until you turn sixty-two?” and “What year will that be?” this straightforward selection covers the accomplishments of workers rights advocate Frances Perkins, from her fight for safe and fair treatment of working men, women, and children to her Great Depression–era achievements as FDR’s Secretary of Labor. The detailed artwork effectively portrays the world in which she lived and the situations she sought to improve. It’s noted that her education was unusual for a woman of her time and that she was the first American woman to serve in a presidential Cabinet, though the text stops short of providing an explicit description of the position of other women of the time. The childhood influence of various family members is addressed while her husband and child are briefly referenced (the mental illness that affected both is not), and her same-sex relationship goes unmentioned. What ultimately emerges is an engaging portrayal of a dedicated and influential woman who strove to improve the lives of others through various reforms, all succinctly explained, and the text returns to the initial questions, showing how Social Security is relevant to all. Perkins and those around her are depicted as white with few exceptions, but a closing scene set in the present day includes a multiracial and multiethnic gathering of people celebrating her legacy.
An informative portrait of an activist and advocate whose accomplishments are still evident today. (author's note, online resources, bibliography, source notes) (Picture book/biography. 6-10)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-68263-136-2
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses.
An NBA star pays tribute to the influence of his grandfather.
In the same vein as his Long Shot (2009), illustrated by Frank Morrison, this latest from Paul prioritizes values and character: “My granddad Papa Chilly had dreams that came true,” he writes, “so maybe if I listen and watch him, / mine will too.” So it is that the wide-eyed Black child in the simply drawn illustrations rises early to get to the playground hoops before anyone else, watches his elder working hard and respecting others, hears him cheering along with the rest of the family from the stands during games, and recalls in a prose afterword that his grandfather wasn’t one to lecture but taught by example. Paul mentions in both the text and the backmatter that Papa Chilly was the first African American to own a service station in North Carolina (his presumed dream) but not that he was killed in a robbery, which has the effect of keeping the overall tone positive and the instructional content one-dimensional. Figures in the pictures are mostly dark-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-81003-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
A reasonably solid grounding in constitutional rights, their flexibility, lacunae, and hard-won corrections, despite a few...
Shamir offers an investigation of the foundations of freedoms in the United States via its founding documents, as well as movements and individuals who had great impacts on shaping and reshaping those institutions.
The opening pages of this picture book get off to a wobbly start with comments such as “You know that feeling you get…when you see a wide open field that you can run through without worrying about traffic or cars? That’s freedom.” But as the book progresses, Shamir slowly steadies the craft toward that wide-open field of freedom. She notes the many obvious-to-us-now exclusivities that the founding political documents embodied—that the entitled, white, male authors did not extend freedom to enslaved African-Americans, Native Americans, and women—and encourages readers to learn to exercise vigilance and foresight. The gradual inclusion of these left-behind people paints a modestly rosy picture of their circumstances today, and the text seems to give up on explaining how Native Americans continue to be left behind. Still, a vital part of what makes freedom daunting is its constant motion, and that is ably expressed. Numerous boxed tidbits give substance to the bigger political picture. Who were the abolitionists and the suffragists, what were the Montgomery bus boycott and the “Uprising of 20,000”? Faulkner’s artwork conveys settings and emotions quite well, and his drawing of Ruby Bridges is about as darling as it gets. A helpful timeline and bibliography appear as endnotes.
A reasonably solid grounding in constitutional rights, their flexibility, lacunae, and hard-won corrections, despite a few misfires. (Informational picture book. 6-10)Pub Date: May 2, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-54728-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
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