by Eds. of TIME for Kids ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 30, 2018
Reasonably inclusive if parochial in geographic scope and with a message that Aretha Franklin puts most pithily: “We’re...
Thirty-two living women with “firsts” to their credit offer reflections and attitude.
The qualifier “American” is absent from the title, but everyone here except Madeleine Albright was born in the United States, and all are still residents. Distilled for young audiences from an online project and its earlier print spinoff, Firsts: Women Who Are Changing the World (2017), the birthdate-ordered gallery begins with Barbara Walters (“First woman to co-anchor a network evening news program”) and Rita Moreno (“First Latina to win an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony”) and ends with Mo’ne Davis (“First girl to pitch a shutout and win a game in a Little League World Series”). In between it offers both third-person biographical thumbnails and original one- or two-page statements from women in a range of professions. As role models, the usual suspects (Oprah Winfrey, Hillary Clinton, Maya Lin) are interspersed with some venturesome choices (Kellyanne Conway, Rachel Maddow, transgender TV actor Candis Cayne), but common themes emerge in their experiences—being “the only woman in the room,” for instance, and the struggle to overcome “the curse of perfectionism.” If some remarks read like aspirational boilerplate, there is enough individual voice in most to convey strength of character and steadiness of purpose. Each entry features a recent, formal color portrait; most also include additional, sometimes early photos.
Reasonably inclusive if parochial in geographic scope and with a message that Aretha Franklin puts most pithily: “We’re coming.” (index) (Collective biography. 10-13)Pub Date: Oct. 30, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-54780-006-3
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Time Inc. Books
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
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by Saundra Mitchell ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 10, 2016
A breezy, bustling bucketful of courageous acts and eye-popping feats.
Why should grown-ups get all the historical, scientific, athletic, cinematic, and artistic glory?
Choosing exemplars from both past and present, Mitchell includes but goes well beyond Alexander the Great, Anne Frank, and like usual suspects to introduce a host of lesser-known luminaries. These include Shapur II, who was formally crowned king of Persia before he was born, Indian dancer/professional architect Sheila Sri Prakash, transgender spokesperson Jazz Jennings, inventor Param Jaggi, and an international host of other teen or preteen activists and prodigies. The individual portraits range from one paragraph to several pages in length, and they are interspersed with group tributes to, for instance, the Nazi-resisting “Swingkinder,” the striking New York City newsboys, and the marchers of the Birmingham Children’s Crusade. Mitchell even offers would-be villains a role model in Elagabalus, “boy emperor of Rome,” though she notes that he, at least, came to an awful end: “Then, then! They dumped his remains in the Tiber River, to be nommed by fish for all eternity.” The entries are arranged in no evident order, and though the backmatter includes multiple booklists, a personality quiz, a glossary, and even a quick Braille primer (with Braille jokes to decode), there is no index. Still, for readers whose fires need lighting, there’s motivational kindling on nearly every page.
A breezy, bustling bucketful of courageous acts and eye-popping feats. (finished illustrations not seen) (Collective biography. 10-13)Pub Date: May 10, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-14-751813-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Puffin
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2015
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by Dwight Jon Zimmerman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2010
More a historical narrative than a character portrait, this account of Tecumseh’s efforts to create a tribal confederacy in the Old Northwest focuses on the great Shawnee leader’s many battles and negotiations with then–Territorial Governor William Henry Harrison and then his disastrous—ultimately fatal—alliance with the British during the War of 1812. Replete with side essays on such varied subtopics as the Northwest Territory, the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-12 and the Battle of Lake Erie, it also boasts often–full-color illustrations from archival sources (many of these later paintings and old prints that are inaccurate, as the discursive captions often rightly note, and sometimes too small to make out anyway). In all, this will provide students a coherent view of events if not a clear understanding of Shawnee culture or Tecumseh’s heroic personal qualities. If it's not the 100-page holy grail of middle-grade biographies, it is still pretty close. (glossary, bibliography, source notes, index) (Biography. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4027-6847-7
Page Count: 124
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: Dec. 29, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2010
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