Extraordinary women who had incredible adventures often are the subjects for Brown’s (Across a Dark and Wild Sea, p. 101, etc.) biographies and he has found another to celebrate. Alexandra David grew up in 19th-century Paris and had a career as a singer, but she was utterly consumed with wanderlust for Asia and the study of Buddhism. In her 40s, she left her husband, Philip Neel, for a journey; it would be 14 years before she returned. She went to Tibet, studying Tibetan as a hermit for a year, then received permission to study at the monastery in Kum Bum. There, a boy named Yongden became her servant, and later her companion and adopted son. She and Yongden traveled to Lhasa disguised as beggars on a pilgrimage—she darkens her face and hair for the journey—and they conquered snow-filled mountain passes, frozen rivers, and even rode a leather-rope cable over a deep gorge. She was the first Western woman to see Lhasa. An Author’s Note and bibliography offer more information, including that David-Neel died at 101 in 1969, just after having renewed her passport. Even now, children mostly seem to hear about wild adventure as the purview of men and boys: to have Don Brown’s series is a bracing antidote to that misconception. Brown’s signature watercolors are impressionistic, almost calligraphic: a yak looms in the foreground; Alexandra and Yongden are tiny figures in a vast snowy expanse on the “roof of the world”; a colorful tapestry of tiny paper prayer flags surround the trunk of an ancient tree. Alexandra’s words seem to all be taken from her own accounts of her travels. Heady, powerful stuff. (Picture book/nonfiction. 5-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2002
ISBN: 0-618-08364-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2002
When Bibi, her first and favorite babysitter, moves away, it takes all of August for 8-year-old Eleanor to get beyond her sense of loss and get used to a new caretaker. Her parents grieve, too; her mother even takes some time off work. But, as is inevitable in a two-income family, eventually a new sitter appears. Natalie is sensible and understanding. They find new activities to do together, including setting up a lemonade stand outside Eleanor’s Brooklyn apartment building, waiting for Val, the mail carrier, and taking pictures of flowers with Natalie’s camera. Gradually Eleanor adjusts, September comes, her new teacher writes a welcoming letter, her best friend returns from summer vacation and third grade starts smoothly. Best of all, Val brings a loving letter from Bibi in Florida. While the story is relatively lengthy, each chapter is a self-contained episode, written simply and presented in short lines, accessible to those still struggling with the printed word. Cordell’s gray-scale line drawings reflect the action and help break up the text on almost every page. This first novel is a promising debut. Eleanor’s concerns, not only about her babysitter, but also about playmates, friends and a new school year will be familiar to readers, who will look forward to hearing more about her life. (Fiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-8109-8424-0
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Feb. 10, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An autobiographical tribute to Polacco’s fifth-grade teacher, the first adult to recognize her learning disability and to help her learn to read. Trisha begins kindergarten with high hopes, but as the years go by she becomes convinced she is dumb. She can draw well, but is desperately frustrated by math and reading. In fifth grade, Mr. Falker silences the children who taunt Trisha, and begins, with a reading teacher, to help her after school. A thank-you to a teacher who made a difference is always welcome, but this one is unbearably sentimental. Although the perspective is supposed to be Trisha’s, many sentences give away the adult viewpoint, e.g., “She didn’t notice that Mr. Falker and Miss Plessy had tears in their eyes.” The extent to which Trisha limns her own misery and deifies Mr. Falker (complete with a classroom version of a “He who is without sin among you” scene) is mawkish. Mr. Falker’s implicit sense of fairness—“Right from the start, it didn’t seem to matter to Mr. Falker which kids were the cutest. Or the smartest. Or the best at anything”—is contradicted when Trisha is the object of praise: Mr. Falker, watching her draw, whispers, “This is brilliant . . . absolutely brilliant. Do you know how talented you are?” Polacco’s disdain for all the other teachers and the students intrudes on Trisha’s more profoundly heartbreaking perspective; the book lacks the author’s usual flair for making personal stories universal. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-399-23166-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1998
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