An excellent and important introduction to a man who went from freedom to slavery and back again.
Most readers know something about the Underground Railroad, when African Americans went from slavery to freedom, but this volume presents the opposite scenario: the enslavement of thousands of free Northern blacks.
Solomon Northup was one of 400,000 free blacks living in the United States in 1841. He was living in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., with his wife and three children, when two white men offered him good money to play violin for the circus they represented. Solomon jumped at the chance and soon found himself captured, beaten and transported to Louisiana, where he suffered a 12-year odyssey as a slave. Brevity, the focus on one man’s story and a lively prose style make this an unusually affecting and important narrative. All of the dialogue and many of the details come from Northup’s own memoir, Twelve Years a Slave, published in 1853. Photographs, maps and reproductions of a bill of sale and various newspaper images complement the text. Unfortunately, sources are not always provided, as for a Frederick Douglass quotation on the final page, and the meager bibliography offers no sources for young readers, a shame since so many fine sources exist.
An excellent and important introduction to a man who went from freedom to slavery and back again. (afterword, time line, online resources, index) (Nonfiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4263-0937-3
Page Count: 128
Publisher: National Geographic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
As he did in Lincoln Through the Lens (2008), Sandler offers a fascinating photo-essay examining how images shaped public perceptions of John F. Kennedy. In Kennedy’s case, it was television and advances in color photography and photojournalism that were influential. One of America’s most photogenic presidents, Kennedy was an astute user of the media. Following the format of the other Through the Lens books, each spread is a self-contained “chapter,” with one page of text and a full-page photograph, many in color. The book begins with an overview of Kennedy’s life and the role that photography and television played in his career. Subsequent spreads are chronological, covering Kennedy’s life from childhood through assassination. The author notes the significance of the Kennedy presidency’s being the first to be photographed mostly in color, “perfect for capturing the glamour that came to be associated with the Kennedy years.” Kennedy’s life and administration were documented with a groundbreaking intimacy the public had never known before, making this an accessible, insightful perspective on one of America’s most famous presidents. (further reading and websites, source notes, index) (Biography. 10-14)
Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-8027-2160-0
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Walker
Review Posted Online: Dec. 31, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2010
Tricked out with a ribbon, foil highlights on the jacket and portrait galleries at each chapter’s head by Ireland’s leading illustrator, this handsome package offers British readers an orgy of self-congratulatory historical highlights. These are borne along on a tide of invented epithets (“ ‘Foreigners!’ spat Boudicca”), fictive sound bites (“Down with the Committee of Safety!”) and homiletic observations (“By beating Napoléon the British showed how strong they were when they worked together”). Aside from occasional stumbles like the slave trade or the Irish potato famine, Britain’s history—from the Magna Carta to the dissolution of the biggest empire “there had ever been”—unfolds as a steady trot toward ever-broader religious toleration, voting rights and personal freedom. American audiences will likely be surprised to see Mary Queen of Scots characterized as “one of the most famous of all monarchs,” and the Revolutionary War get scarcely more play than the Charge of the Light Brigade. It makes a grand tale, though, even when strict accuracy sometimes takes a back seat to truthiness. Includes timelines, lists of monarchs and an index but no source lists. (Nonfiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5122-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2010
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