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A BASKET OF BANGLES

Geography and economics come together in Howard’s (William’s House, 2001, etc.) multicultural story of a young woman from Bangladesh. Sufiya is desperately poor—she begs rice from her neighbors each day and sleeps on the floor of her brother’s house. But when she takes the advice of a villager and attends a bank meeting, she sees her chance to change things. Sufiya and four friends learn how to get a loan, start a business, and support each other. The five decide on their businesses—selling bangles, milk, soap, snacks, and saris—and then must learn to write their names from Rokeya, the only one of the five who can write. Finally, all the women must be able to recite the rules of the bank, which emphasize saving, investing, health, education, and cooperation. During their meeting with the bank manager, they are given their loans and learn about interest rates and the terms of the repayment. Each of the women finds that the bank rules help them invest and save wisely. They are able to improve their lives, expand their businesses, and repay their loans. Sufiya’s story is followed by a question-and-answer section that identifies the story’s setting, gives more detail about the food and money featured in the book, shows readers how both the bank and Sufiya can profit from this arrangement, and presents information about the actual Grameen Bank and its founder. While the story of Sufiya and her four friends may be a bit too optimistic about the ease of changing poverty, it does present readers with solid information about the way loans work. Lively watercolors wonderfully depict the village Sufiya lives in. Vibrant-colored saris clothe the women, woven mats cover the floors of the simple grass huts, and the marketplace is filled with people, animals, stalls, and wares for sale. A good addition to an elementary economics curriculum. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)

Pub Date: March 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-7613-1902-6

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Millbrook

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2002

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TWENTY-ONE ELEPHANTS AND STILL STANDING

Strong rhythms and occasional full or partial rhymes give this account of P.T. Barnum’s 1884 elephant parade across the newly opened Brooklyn Bridge an incantatory tone. Catching a whiff of public concern about the new bridge’s sturdiness, Barnum seizes the moment: “’I will stage an event / that will calm every fear, erase every worry, / about that remarkable bridge. / My display will amuse, inform / and astound some. / Or else my name isn’t Barnum!’” Using a rich palette of glowing golds and browns, Roca imbues the pachyderms with a calm solidity, sending them ambling past equally solid-looking buildings and over a truly monumental bridge—which soars over a striped Big Top tent in the final scene. A stately rendition of the episode, less exuberant, but also less fictionalized, than Phil Bildner’s Twenty-One Elephants (2004), illustrated by LeUyen Pham. (author’s note, resource list) (Picture book. 7-9)

Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2005

ISBN: 0-618-44887-X

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2005

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ELIE WIESEL

BEARING WITNESS

A clear, understandable account of a young Jewish boy's terrible experiences during the World War II. In 1944, when Eliezer Wiesel was 15, his town of Sighet (then part of Hungary) was invaded by the German army, who forced all the Jews to live in ghettos. From there, the Wiesel family were sent to concentration camps where, with the exception of Elie, they all were killed. Without fanfare but with dignified emphasis, author Pariser describes the cruelties and horrors of Wiesel's life as an inmate, as well as his subsequent liberation by Allied forces and his future vocation as a journalist, author, speaker, and political activist. Photographs from the WW II period establish a mood of somber witness. With its clear, narrative style, useful bibliography, chronology, and index, this is an excellent introduction to what is undeniably one of the darkest periods in modern history. (Nonfiction. 7-9)

Pub Date: Aug. 15, 1994

ISBN: 1-56294-419-3

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Millbrook

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1994

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