A well-written, multipurpose war-hero story that’s both entertaining and instructive.
This children’s book celebrates the contributions of Marquis de Lafayette to the American Revolution in rhyming verse.
A quotation from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical Hamilton serves this book both as an epigraph and a tip of the hat to that production’s engaging, modernized portrayal of Lafayette, “America’s favorite fighting Frenchman.” Jensen, who has also written several works of historical fiction for children as well as Christmas stories, provides a similarly fresh take on Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de Lafayette and his career, beginning when he was a teenager: “Young Lafayette had dinner with the British king’s bro, / Who told him the Americans were ‘good to go.’ ” Here as elsewhere, the information sketched out in the verse is explained more completely in the endnotes. In this case, readers can learn the date, full name of the king’s “bro,” and Lafayette’s recorded reaction to the conversation. The verses go on to describe Lafayette’s career as he made his way to the Colonies and joined the Revolutionary Army. He became a major general, distinguished himself in several battles and missions, was wounded, served and befriended Washington, won support from France, and played a decisive role in the Battle of Yorktown. Jensen’s deft rhymes and meters generally work well throughout, as when describing Lafayette’s voyage to America: “He endured the trip across despite some nasty mal de mer, / And learned a bit of English by the time he landed there.” While enjoyable on its own, the book is a useful resource with its historical paintings, glossary, bibliography, and endnotes. These are clear, informative, and full of intriguing tidbits, such as noting the “extremely close friendship between the fatherless Lafayette and the childless Washington.” The verse also has performance potential for educational events.
A well-written, multipurpose war-hero story that’s both entertaining and instructive.Pub Date: July 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-9909408-1-4
Page Count: 63
Publisher: Past Times Press
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
1885
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-689-82118-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1999
It took four weeks for illustrations of scenes from the US’s Civil War battles to make it from the front lines to readers’ hands; Morrison (Cheetah, 1998, etc.) explains that process in his uniquely handsome book. Morrison introduces the fictional artist, William Forbes, commissioned by the fictional Burton’s Illustrated News to follow the Union Army into battle at Bull Run. Throughout the day’s fighting Forbes makes quick sketches; it is risky business, and he is often in mortal peril. That night he makes a more complete drawing, which is handed to a courier and taken back to the Burton offices. There, engravers set to work translating Forbes’s drawing to a grid of wood blocks (Morrison includes interesting incidentals along the way, giving the process its due). The images are converted to electrotype, whereafter it is finally ready for the operators and pressman. Shortly after that, the newsboys are seen hawking the illustrated weekly, containing Forbes’s image a mere month after the actual event. Morrison successfully renders the complexities of illustrating newspapers 150 years ago, and just as successfully conveys that in abandoning the wood block for the photograph, some of the art was sacrificed for speed. (glossary) (Picture book. 6-10)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-395-91426-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999
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