Brief and thoughtful, this informative introduction to change-makers gives inspiration to future activists.
A global collective biography of 21 individuals, movements, and organizations exemplifying Margaret Mead’s truism that a small group of citizens can change the world.
Double-page profiles introduce various people who used nonviolent protest and resistance to bring about awareness and significant change to such issues as colonial oppression, gender equality, Indigenous rights, racial discrimination, and women’s suffrage. Individuals profiled include Woody Guthrie, Irene Sendler, the anonymous “Tank Man” of Tiananmen Square, Ryan White, and Greta Thunberg. Working thematically, Stanley also pairs Claudette Colvin and Rosa Parks for a paired profile and groups Filipino American labor activist Larry Itliong with Dolores Huerta and César Chavez, carefully noting that these high-profile individuals represent many. Organizations and movements include the Hollywood Ten, the “It Gets Better” Project, and March for Our Lives. The variety succeeds in introducing readers to a wide range of civil-disobedience and nonviolent-protest tactics, such as boycotts, legal challenges, marches, music, sit-ins, and walkouts. Opposite each single page of text is a textured illustration rendered in muted colors, using colored pencil and watercolor. Holding his walking stick, Gandhi appears against a route map for the Salt March. A youthful Ruth Bader Ginsburg rolls up her sleeve in a muscle-making pose, speaking the feminist slogan, “We Can Do It!” In an author’s note, Stanley emphasizes the youth of many of these activists and encourages readers to discover their passion.
Brief and thoughtful, this informative introduction to change-makers gives inspiration to future activists. (further reading) (Nonfiction. 7-10)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4487-8
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Neal Porter/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A pivotal moment in a child’s life, at once stirring and authentically personal.
Before growing up to become a major figure in the civil rights movement, a boy finds a role model.
Buffing up a childhood tale told by her renowned father, Young Shelton describes how young Andrew saw scary men marching in his New Orleans neighborhood (“It sounded like they were yelling ‘Hi, Hitler!’ ”). In response to his questions, his father took him to see a newsreel of Jesse Owens (“a runner who looked like me”) triumphing in the 1936 Olympics. “Racism is a sickness,” his father tells him. “We’ve got to help folks like that.” How? “Well, you can start by just being the best person you can be,” his father replies. “It’s what you do that counts.” In James’ hazy chalk pastels, Andrew joins racially diverse playmates (including a White child with an Irish accent proudly displaying the nickel he got from his aunt as a bribe to stop playing with “those Colored boys”) in tag and other games, playing catch with his dad, sitting in the midst of a cheering crowd in the local theater’s segregated balcony, and finally visualizing himself pelting down a track alongside his new hero—“head up, back straight, eyes focused,” as a thematically repeated line has it, on the finish line. An afterword by Young Shelton explains that she retold this story, told to her many times growing up, drawing from conversations with Young and from her own research; family photos are also included. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A pivotal moment in a child’s life, at once stirring and authentically personal. (illustrator’s note) (Autobiographical picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-545-55465-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
Go adventuring with a better guide.
Find something to do in every state in the U.S.A.!
This guide highlights a location of interest within each of the states, therefore excluding Washington, D.C., and the territories. Trivia about each location is scattered across crisply rendered landscapes that background each state’s double-page spread while diminutive, diverse characters populate the scenes. Befitting the title, one “adventure” is presented per state, such as shrimping in Louisiana’s bayous, snowshoeing in Connecticut, or celebrating the Fourth of July in Boston. While some are stereotypical gimmes (surfing in California), others have the virtue of novelty, at least for this audience, such as viewing the sandhill crane migration in Nebraska. Within this thematic unity, some details go astray, and readers may find themselves searching in vain for animals mentioned. The trivia is plentiful but may be misleading, vague, or incorrect. Information about the Native American peoples of the area is often included, but its brevity—especially regarding sacred locations—means readers are floundering without sufficient context. The same is true for many of the facts that relate directly to expansion and colonialism, such as the unexplained near extinction of bison. Describing the genealogical oral history of South Carolina’s Gullah community as “spin[ning] tales” is equally brusque and offensive. The book tries to do a lot, but it is more style than substance, which may leave readers bored, confused, slightly annoyed—or all three. (This book was reviewed digitally with 12.2-by-20.2-inch double-page spreads viewed at 80% of actual size.)
Go adventuring with a better guide. (tips on local adventuring, index) (Nonfiction. 8-10)Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-7112-5445-9
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Wide Eyed Editions
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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