by Gary Northfield ; illustrated by Gary Northfield ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 2, 2018
Those treacherous Romans are ripe for a fall…and Julius is just the zebra to give them a push.
At the behest of Emperor Hadrian, the striped gladiator and his animal cohorts sail off to strut their stuff in Britannia.
Kidnapped from Africa in the previous episode and forced to fight in the Colosseum, Julius and his fellow captives have triumphed—but instead of the promised emancipation or even a vacation, they are packed off to misty, moisty Londinium to face local challengers in a Britons Got Talent competition. Intended to quell an unruly populace, the display of Roman might goes badly agley when the locals turn out to be tougher than expected. Along with comically violent, if consistently nonfatal, fights and many episodes of slogging through muck of one sort or another, Northfield adds line drawings of frantically gesticulating human and anthropomorphic animals to every page of the slapstick plot. He also supplies period flavor by numbering the pages in Roman numerals (adding instructions for adding and subtracting the same at the end) and slipping in Latin terms and historical detail. Finally the penny drops, and, realizing that all the gladiators are actually on the same side, Julius daubs himself with woad in solidarity and joins a rebel army that sends the Roman invaders packing.
Those treacherous Romans are ripe for a fall…and Julius is just the zebra to give them a push. (appendix) (Historical farce. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7854-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2017
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by Gary Northfield ; illustrated by Gary Northfield
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by Gary Northfield ; illustrated by Gary Northfield
by Barbara Wright ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 10, 2012
An intensely moving, first-person narrative of a disturbing historical footnote told from the perspective of a very likable,...
Growing up in Wilmington, N.C., in 1898, a naive black boy and his family are devastated by a racist uprising in this fictionalized account of a little-known historical event.
On his last day of fifth grade, a buzzard portentously casts a shadow over Moses Thomas, prompting his grandma, Boo Nanny, to warn: “[Y]ou happiness done dead.” Moses lives with Boo Nanny, a former slave who takes in white people’s laundry, his Mama, a housemaid for wealthy whites, and his Daddy, a reporter and business manager of the Daily Record, “the only Negro daily in the South.” Graduate of Howard University and an elected alderman, Daddy ardently believes in the power of education, and Moses tries to follow in his footsteps by reading library books, learning vocabulary words and maintaining perfect attendance at school. In contrast, Boo Nanny thinks her protected grandson “needs to learn by living.” When a mob of white supremacists burns the newspaper office and arrests his father, Moses becomes dangerously involved and discovers what it means to be his father’s son. Relying on historical records, Wright deftly combines real and fictional characters to produce an intimate story about the Wilmington riots to disenfranchise black citizens.
An intensely moving, first-person narrative of a disturbing historical footnote told from the perspective of a very likable, credible young hero. (historical note) (Historical fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-375-86928-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2011
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by Stefan Themerson ; Barbara Wright ; illustrated by Franciszka Themerson
by Wes Tooke ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 21, 2012
Nourishing fare for Matt Christopher graduates.
A boy takes first steps on the road to physical and emotional recovery from a bout with polio, thanks to help from a solid new friend and a baseball hero.
After a year in the hospital, Nick gets a harsh welcome home from his embittered widower father. The onus of being a “cripple” is eased by the unfaltering friendliness offered by his baseball-loving neighbor Emma and the news that the owner of the local semipro team, the Bismarck Churchills, has not only signed up more talented “colored boys” but enticed the great Satchel Paige to return for the 1935 season. As his father is the team’s catcher, Nick is enlisted to sell programs and generally make himself useful—which allows him to witness Satch leading a spectacular integrated team to a minor league world championship win. Along the way Nick also watches the renowned pitcher respond with dignity to racial hatred (including an encounter with a “cracker cop”). Absorbing both advice (“Ain’t no man can avoid being born average, but there ain’t no man got to be common”) and some of Satch’s prized “deer oil,” he quickly sheds his leg brace and regains his own pitching skills. Tooke sticks closely to historical records, with the addition of a few extra Paige exploits and aphorisms, and though Nick’s recovery seems a little too easy, the fictional overlay offers a comfortably predictable “hard work brings just rewards” arc.
Nourishing fare for Matt Christopher graduates. (Sports fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Feb. 21, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-3346-5
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2011
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