Brown begins his beautifully constructed picture-book biography with young Sam’s dangerous escapade on the frozen Mississippi River. Focusing on childhood incidents that will later appear in Twain’s books, Brown cunningly recalls the opening event in his conclusion: “Bye and bye, he remembered his boyhood, the glad morning of his life. As if skating ice cakes on a frozen river, Sam skipped from memory to memory and wove together great tales. . . . ” Brown’s eloquent, old-fashioned language echoes Twain’s own words, also generously sprinkled throughout. “My literature attracted the town’s attention, but not its admiration,” Brown quotes. Like his subject, Brown also skips from incident to incident, telling just enough to hold the reader’s interest, and like Twain, he makes the reader think, with his handling of such incidents as young Sam’s response to slavery, and his friendship with the outcast Tom Blankenship (the model for Huck Finn). Lively watercolors deftly depict Clemens’s exuberant character and youthful shenanigans, while their subdued tones are nostalgic. Includes bibliography and author’s note. (Picture book/biography. 8-10)
Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2003
ISBN: 0-618-17997-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2003
An optimistic if somewhat superficial tale of persevering and thriving with a disability.
Clark, who was born without legs, presents snapshots of his journey from foster child to talented athlete.
After being given up at birth, Clark experienced abuse and neglect in foster care. Fortunately, at 17, he was adopted. His adoptive mother, “a woman of great faith,” encouraged him to succeed: “If they’re going to look at you, make sure they remember your name.” And succeed he did, becoming an elite high school wrestler and an Ohio state champion in seated racing. Vivid color photos depict Clark wrestling nondisabled opponents and racing via wheelchair and handcycle. Accenting the photos, bold, uppercase quotes from family members and coaches affirm his talent and determination. An early foster mother encourages him to “fly.” His high school track coach remarks, “After coaching Zion, I no longer have any excuses in my life”—a sentiment echoed by the stark “NO EXCUSES” tattoo spanning Clark’s shoulders. Though readers will appreciate Clark’s advice to “work with what you got,” his clichéd suggestion that “you just have to follow your dreams” falls flat; kids may find themselves wanting more information. How did he adapt his wrestling technique? How did he cope with the “dual stigma of Blackness and disability”? Without concrete examples, readers struggling with similar challenges may find his assertion that “if I can do it, so can you” frustrating rather than inspiring.
An optimistic if somewhat superficial tale of persevering and thriving with a disability. (Picture book/memoir. 8-10)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5362-2418-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
A searching picture of a pioneering social crusader.
A tribute to the self-taught photographer who sparked real reform by turning faceless masses of abused workers into children with names and histories.
Incorporating Hine’s voice and some of his actual words (signaled with italics) into her free-verse monologue, Hinrichs highlights both his purposes—“I want to show their hard work / their hard lives” and also “their spirit. Because / the human spirit / is the big thing / after all”—and his methods of getting past suspicious factory overseers and of connecting with child workers in settings from cranberry bogs and canneries to coal mines. Garland’s harmoniously toned painted images of a slender, deceptively inoffensive-looking White figure using an awkward box camera to take pictures of solemn children, most but not all White, with downcast eyes and patchy period clothes meld gradually toward the end into Hine’s actual work (he called them “Hineographs”). More than 30 in all, they appear in a gallery that goes to the rear endpapers and are accompanied by a prose recap that downplays but at least mentions his quaint views on gender roles plus the fact that he took relatively few pictures of Black children and almost none of Asians. Russell Freedman’s Kids At Work (1994) explores his life and legacy in greater detail, but there’s enough here to leave even younger readers moved by his mission and his timeless portraits.
A searching picture of a pioneering social crusader. (chronology, source list, endnotes) (Picture book/biography. 8-10)Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-947440-06-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Getty Publications
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
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