by Diane Stanley & illustrated by Diane Stanley ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1998
From Stanley (Rumpelstiltskin’s Daughter, 1997, etc.), a sympathetic biography that is also a straightforward affair, captured in gemlike illustrations that feign a Book of Hours touch—though many are drenched in piety—recounting the story of Joan’s life. Covered are her humble beginnings, the visions and voices of saints that came to her, the road to Chinon, and her meeting with the dauphin, the fateful battle at Orleans, and the disaster at Paris, and on to the recanting of her ways and subsequent execution. Stanley does well in treating the Maid’s visions and foretellings as acceptable events, as distinct possibilities within the framework of medieval thought. Best of all, she outlines the political maneuverings of the English and the French during the Hundred Years War, how Joan was used by the French dauphin and military leaders, and the treachery of the Inquisition that found a way to kill her even after she, uncharacteristically and perhaps damningly, recanted. (map, bibliography) (Picture book/biography. 6-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-688-14329-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1998
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by Diane Stanley ; illustrated by Jessie Hartland
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by Gaylia Taylor & illustrated by Frank Morrison ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2006
Spinning lively invented details around skimpy historical records, Taylor profiles the 19th-century chef credited with inventing the potato chip. Crum, thought to be of mixed Native-American and African-American ancestry, was a lover of the outdoors, who turned cooking skills learned from a French hunter into a kitchen job at an upscale resort in New York state. As the story goes, he fried up the first batch of chips in a fit of pique after a diner complained that his French fries were cut too thickly. Morrison’s schoolroom, kitchen and restaurant scenes seem a little more integrated than would have been likely in the 1850s, but his sinuous figures slide through them with exaggerated elegance, adding a theatrical energy as delicious as the snack food they celebrate. The author leaves Crum presiding over a restaurant (also integrated) of his own, closes with a note separating fact from fiction and also lists her sources. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: April 1, 2006
ISBN: 1-58430-255-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Lee & Low Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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by Chris Paul ; illustrated by Courtney Lovett ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 10, 2023
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
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by Chris Paul & illustrated by Frank Morrison
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