While it will be inspirational to young readers who may be exploring their own talents, this is probably of greater interest...
A village girl in India follows her inclinations and becomes an artist, in spite of her upbringing in a very poor family.
Devi, a woman from the state of Bihar, has illustrated her life story with Mithila folk-art paintings that employ bold patterns of parallel black lines, swirling shapes and intense solid colors. The straightforward text in Devi’s voice tells of her childhood and her hard work in the rice fields and the marketplace. Unschooled, she is doomed to be a cleaner in someone else’s home. When she finds work at an artist’s house, her creative yearnings find an outlet, and an artist is born. In an afterword, Devi is described as combining community traditions with modern themes, and her double-page spread of “Raju Ice Creame Wala” (“The Ice-Cream Man”) surrounded by eager children in traditional dress, under a spreading leafy tree with a highly decorated trunk, is the best example of this synthesis. The paintings, based on traditional floor and wall decorations, have been commercialized, but they also provide a way for rural women to make a living. Devi’s story has been put into written form by Wolf, but it is the paintings that stand out here.
While it will be inspirational to young readers who may be exploring their own talents, this is probably of greater interest to adult folk-art lovers. (Picture book/biography. 6-9)Pub Date: July 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-93-80340-11-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tara Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2011
A succinct, edifying read, but don’t buy it for the pictures.
Abraham Lincoln’s ascent to the presidency is recounted in a fluid, easy-to-read biography for early readers.
Simple, direct sentences stress Lincoln’s humble upbringing, his honesty, and his devotion to acting with moral conviction. “Lincoln didn’t seem like a man who would be president one day. But he studied hard and became a lawyer. He cared about people and about justice.” Slavery and Lincoln’s signature achievement of emancipation are explained in broad yet defined, understandable analogies. “At that time, in the South, the law let white people own black people, just as they owned a house or a horse.” Readers are clearly given the president’s perspective through some documented memorable quotes from his own letters. “Lincoln did not like slavery. ‘If slavery is not wrong,’ he wrote to a friend ‘nothing is wrong.’ ” (The text does not clarify that this letter was written in 1865 and not before he ascended to the presidency, as implied by the book.) As the war goes on and Lincoln makes his decision to free the slaves in the “Southern states”—“a bold move”—Lincoln’s own words describe his thinking: “ ‘If my name ever goes into history,’ Lincoln said, ‘it will be for this act.’ ” A very basic timeline, which mentions the assassination unaddressed in the text, is followed by backmatter providing photographs, slightly more detailed historical information, and legacy. It’s a pity that the text is accompanied by unremarkable, rudimentary opaque paintings.
A succinct, edifying read, but don’t buy it for the pictures. (Informational early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: June 20, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-243256-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2017
The legions of fans who over the years have enjoyed dePaola’s autobiographical picture books will welcome this longer gathering of reminiscences. Writing in an authentically childlike voice, he describes watching the new house his father was building go up despite a succession of disasters, from a brush fire to the hurricane of 1938. Meanwhile, he also introduces family, friends, and neighbors, adds Nana Fall River to his already well-known Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs, remembers his first day of school (“ ‘ When do we learn to read?’ I asked. ‘Oh, we don’t learn how to read in kindergarten. We learn to read next year, in first grade.’ ‘Fine,’ I said. ‘I’ll be back next year.’ And I walked right out of school.”), recalls holidays, and explains his indignation when the plot of Disney’s “Snow White” doesn’t match the story he knows. Generously illustrated with vignettes and larger scenes, this cheery, well-knit narrative proves that an old dog can learn new tricks, and learn them surpassingly well. (Autobiography. 7-9)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-399-23246-X
Page Count: 58
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1999
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