Proof that big dreams can lead to big changes and important progress.
American Reform Judaism’s founder dreamed big.
Isaac Mayer Wise, born in Bohemia in 1819, loved studying and began rabbinical training at age 16. At university he learned different languages and studied music, literature, science, and other religions. In ensuing years, Isaac married, was ordained, then headed his own synagogue, where congregants disagreed with his nontraditional ideas that women and girls deserved equal treatment in synagogues and Jewish schools and that families should worship together. Isaac believed America would welcome new ideas about Judaism, so in 1846 he and his family sailed to New York. At the time, there were few trained rabbis in the United States. Leading congregations in first Albany, then Cincinnati, Isaac promoted modernization. He believed Jews should adapt older practices to the modern world and accept the coexistence of science and religion. Isaac started a Jewish newspaper and published novels and plays featuring Jewish characters and themes. More Jews embraced his forward-thinking ideas. He built a bigger synagogue and a rabbinical college open to young women (though women wouldn’t be ordained until years later). This straightforward, well-written life of a visionary whose work continues to inspire will resonate with many. The colorful illustrations, featuring a fiery-haired Isaac, have a delicate, folkloric look. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Proof that big dreams can lead to big changes and important progress. (author’s note, timeline) (Informational picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2023
ISBN: 9781728467931
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kar-Ben
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2023
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses.
An NBA star pays tribute to the influence of his grandfather.
In the same vein as his Long Shot (2009), illustrated by Frank Morrison, this latest from Paul prioritizes values and character: “My granddad Papa Chilly had dreams that came true,” he writes, “so maybe if I listen and watch him, / mine will too.” So it is that the wide-eyed Black child in the simply drawn illustrations rises early to get to the playground hoops before anyone else, watches his elder working hard and respecting others, hears him cheering along with the rest of the family from the stands during games, and recalls in a prose afterword that his grandfather wasn’t one to lecture but taught by example. Paul mentions in both the text and the backmatter that Papa Chilly was the first African American to own a service station in North Carolina (his presumed dream) but not that he was killed in a robbery, which has the effect of keeping the overall tone positive and the instructional content one-dimensional. Figures in the pictures are mostly dark-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-81003-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
A picture book more than worthy of sharing the shelf with Alan Schroeder and Jerry Pinkney’s Minty (1996) and Carole Boston...
A memorable, lyrical reverse-chronological walk through the life of an American icon.
In free verse, Cline-Ransome narrates the life of Harriet Tubman, starting and ending with a train ride Tubman takes as an old woman. “But before wrinkles formed / and her eyes failed,” Tubman could walk tirelessly under a starlit sky. Cline-Ransome then describes the array of roles Tubman played throughout her life, including suffragist, abolitionist, Union spy, and conductor on the Underground Railroad. By framing the story around a literal train ride, the Ransomes juxtapose the privilege of traveling by rail against Harriet’s earlier modes of travel, when she repeatedly ran for her life. Racism still abounds, however, for she rides in a segregated train. While the text introduces readers to the details of Tubman’s life, Ransome’s use of watercolor—such a striking departure from his oil illustrations in many of his other picture books—reveals Tubman’s humanity, determination, drive, and hope. Ransome’s lavishly detailed and expansive double-page spreads situate young readers in each time and place as the text takes them further into the past.
A picture book more than worthy of sharing the shelf with Alan Schroeder and Jerry Pinkney’s Minty (1996) and Carole Boston Weatherford and Kadir Nelson’s Moses (2006). (Picture book/biography. 5-8)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2047-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
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