by Dick Morris & Eileen McGann & Clayton Liotta ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 19, 2011
A fun adventure that introduces young children to American history.
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A missing tennis ball leads to a lesson in American history for golden retriever Dubs in this children’s book by Morris, McGann and Liotta.
When Dubs discovers that his prized tennis ball has rolled away, he sets off on a mission to find it. The journey takes him throughout Washington, D.C., from the Lincoln Memorial to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and to just about every point-of-interest in between. At each stop, before resuming the search for his tennis ball, Dubs reflects on the meaning or purpose of the site and how it personally affects him. While gazing up at the columns of the U.S. Supreme Court building, Dubs considers how “[i]f another dog took away my ball / the court would get it / back for me after all.” At the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, Dubs thinks, “If people are equal, can it possibly be / That dogs are too,…especially me?” By having Dubs not just recite what each site is and its role in American history but also briefly explain how the buildings or the actions of the people being memorialized personally affect him, the authors make it easier for children to relate to the imposing federal buildings and monuments. The rhyming scheme, though at times a bit clunky (“Dubs stopped by to visit the White House / To see the president and his lovely spouse”) keep the tone light, as does the missing tennis ball. Young readers will have fun searching for the bright yellow ball—always just out of Dubs’ sight—in each of the illustrations. The illustrations, by Liotta, both capture the playful side of Dubs and, at times, the solemnity of the monuments he visits. Each drawn from a different angle, they invite readers in for a closer look. At the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, for example, Dubs hides beneath the folds of FDR’s cape, growling at Fala, the president’s Scottish terrier, who is also memorialized. At the World War II memorial, with his back to us, Dubs sits peacefully, surrounded by green memorial wreaths. The illustrations, coupled with the breadth of sites that Dubs visits, (15 in all), will keep readers interested while they learn about history and help Dubs find his tennis ball.
A fun adventure that introduces young children to American history.Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2011
ISBN: 978-1439280263
Page Count: 44
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 29, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Marie Bradby & illustrated by Chris K. Soentpiet ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1995
An inspiring story of young boy's compelling desire to read. As a boy of nine, Booker works in a salt mine from the dark of early morning to the gloom of night, hungry for a meal, but even hungrier to learn to read. Readers follow him on his quest in Malden, Virginia, where he finds inspiration in a man ``brown as me'' reading a newspaper on a street corner. An alphabet book helps, but Booker can't make the connection to words. Seeking out ``that brown face of hope'' once again, Booker gains a sense of the sounds represented by letters, and these become his deliverance. Bradby's fine first book is tautly written, with a poetic, spiritual quality in every line. The beautifully executed, luminous illustrations capture the atmosphere of an African-American community post-slavery: the drudgery of days consumed by back- breaking labor, the texture of private lives conducted by lantern- light. There is no other context or historical note about Booker T. Washington's life, leaving readers to piece together his identity. Regardless, this is an immensely satisfying, accomplished work, resonating first with longing and then with joy. (Picture book. 5- 8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-531-09464-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1995
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by Augusta Scattergood ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 2012
Though occasionally heavy-handed, this debut offers a vivid glimpse of the 1960s South through the eyes of a spirited girl...
The closing of her favorite swimming pool opens 11-year-old Gloriana Hemphill’s eyes to the ugliness of racism in a small Mississippi town in 1964.
Glory can’t believe it… the Hanging Moss Community Pool is closing right before her July Fourth birthday. Not only that, she finds out the closure’s not for the claimed repairs needed, but so Negroes can’t swim there. Tensions have been building since “Freedom Workers” from the North started shaking up status quo, and Glory finds herself embroiled in it when her new, white friend from Ohio boldly drinks from the “Colored Only” fountain. The Hemphills’ African-American maid, Emma, a mother figure to Glory and her sister Jesslyn, tells her, “Don’t be worrying about what you can’t fix, Glory honey.” But Glory does, becoming an activist herself when she writes an indignant letter to the newspaper likening “hateful prejudice” to “dog doo” that makes her preacher papa proud. When she’s not saving the world, reading Nancy Drew or eating Dreamsicles, Glory shares the heartache of being the kid sister of a preoccupied teenager, friendship gone awry and the terrible cost of blabbing people’s secrets… mostly in a humorously sassy first-person voice.
Though occasionally heavy-handed, this debut offers a vivid glimpse of the 1960s South through the eyes of a spirited girl who takes a stand. (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-33180-7
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
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