Sadly, Van Steenwyk’s affirming narrative and important subject are matched with out-of-sync art.
Van Steenwyk introduces Kate Warne, whose determined skill secured her spot in U.S. history as the country’s first woman detective.
In 1856, the enterprising young white woman persuaded Allan Pinkerton, head of the country’s pre-eminent detective agency, to hire her. Warne convinced Pinkerton that a woman could gain access to situations and information that male detectives couldn’t. As a detective, Warne used disguises and false identities at social events. In fancy gowns and, sometimes, disguised as a fortuneteller, Warne gained the confidences of wives of businessmen and politicians. In 1860, Pinkerton learned of a rumored plot to assassinate President-elect Lincoln in Baltimore, en route from Illinois to his inauguration in Washington. Pinkerton assigned Warne an important role in thwarting the assassination. She infiltrated a Baltimore group called the Golden Circle, confirming the plot. While Pinkerton informed the president, Kate warned one of Lincoln’s confidants. Van Steenwyk succinctly details the elaborate counterplan, in which Lincoln altered his multicity itinerary and even donned a disguise himself to throw off the hunt. Warne rose at Pinkerton, directing both male and female detectives and heading the agency’s Washington office during the Civil War. In contrast to crisp text, Belloni’s stylized illustrations are a digital miasma of cartoon colors, layered textures, and Disney-fied features and gowns. Eyes, especially, are large, dilated, and kittenish.
Sadly, Van Steenwyk’s affirming narrative and important subject are matched with out-of-sync art. (note, bibliography) (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8075-4117-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2016
Even very young dinosaur devotees will have no trouble finding better pickings elsewhere.
A pooch with, in previous outings, a penchant for straying touristically in various modern cities takes a quick scoot through the age of the dinosaurs, and after.
Having dozed off while his human buddy Pete is studying, Larry “wakes” beneath the feet of a huge, plant-eating sauropod and then flees from a T. Rex, going past various armored and feathered dinos. He goes on to get glimpses of Cretaceous fliers and swimmers, then trots through the Cenozoic Era to the Stone Age and, at last, his modern dinner. In illustrations that look like scraped screen prints, the prehistoric critters are recognizable in shape but monochromatically colored. The often low-contrast or pastel hues are as flat as the main narrative’s verse: “These guys look scary, / With armor and spikes. / But that’s just for defense; / It’s plants that they like.” Along with unexplained terminology (“Cretaceous-Paleogene Extinction Event”), the accompanying prose captions offer such awkwardly phrased gems as: “If something becomes buried under the right conditions, the evidence of it can last for millions of years.”
Even very young dinosaur devotees will have no trouble finding better pickings elsewhere. (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-57061-862-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sasquatch
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Overwrought and flawed history accompanied by unappealing illustrations. (Picture book/biography. 5-8)
An homage to the 35th president of the United States, marking the 50th anniversary of his assassination.
Winter frames his narrative with personal statements, opening with an anecdote that he was a baby watching on his father’s shoulders in Dallas on November 22 and concluding with a gushy testimonial. In between, he covers the litany of Kennedy’s sickly childhood, World War II heroism, presidential campaign and three years in office, playing into the Kennedy mythology without restraint. The story of the older brother killed in combat and the second son assuming the political mantle is more legend than fact, and Kennedy’s support of the civil rights movement was more conservative than implied. The crux of the West Virginia primary was whether or not a Catholic could carry a Protestant state, not economics. In addition, the Camelot aura arose from an interview Jacqueline Kennedy gave to Theodore White, not from JFK’s childhood reading. Winter does not mention the space program but does devote a page to the Cuban missile crisis. He concludes that JFK was flawed, but “his words and his spirit live on.” The only sourcing is one website recommended for further reading. The brevity of the form and the youth of the audience is no excuse for hagiography instead of history. Ford’s full-color paintings reproduce period photographs, some making a very good-looking family appear singularly unattractive.
Overwrought and flawed history accompanied by unappealing illustrations. (Picture book/biography. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-176807-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2013
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