A vivid evocation of place and era rolling solidly on a bed of timeless values.
Climbing aboard a “train” to a better life, third grader Thelma joins other African American children on the walk to school.
Again drawing on family history, the author of Black-Eyed Peas and Hoghead Cheese (2022), illustrated by Steffi Walthall, reframes her mother Thelma’s childhood as a series of imagined train rides—first to a one-room school, then, in class, further on to dazzling destinations like Oz and Treasure Island and back in time to hear about Harriet Tubman and other heroes. On the way, Thelma learns that “Mr. Jim Crow” isn’t a mean man who has driven her aunt and uncle away from their Louisiana town to California but a set of discriminatory laws and customs. “Just keep riding that schooltrain,” her father says. But Thelma has one more train to board, the kind with wheels, when her father loses his job. On the platform, her teacher calms her worries about going to a new school in Los Angeles by handing her a book: “You have your ticket.” Morris uses tissue collage and digital finishing to create richly hued scenes of brown-skinned, actively posed adults and children in small-town settings with, often, train tracks visible in the background. In a long afterword well stocked with personal photos, Armand retraces both the metaphorical and actual journeys, filling in details about Jim Crow as well as the Great Migration and her family’s experience of them. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A vivid evocation of place and era rolling solidly on a bed of timeless values. (Historical picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-338-76689-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This ghost story by Bauer is a companion chapter book to her previous titles, The Blue Ghost, The Red Ghost and The Green Ghost (2005, 2008, 2008) and features an animal ghost—a golden dog. Out of boredom, Delsie and pal Todd decide to visit the supposedly haunted houses that were abandoned when the old cement mill shut down. They find one door that opens and evidence of someone living there, which spooks them. When they see an old man walking in the road, they know he’s the one. By his side is a sparkling, golden shape, the old man’s dead dog, now a ghost, but Delsie is the only one who can see it. She has longed for a dog but can’t have one because her father is allergic to animals (up to and including groundhogs, as his tired, old joke goes). Opening with the dog’s thoughts as she paces waiting for someone to see her, Bauer sets up the premise, and, of course, in the end the ghost dog comes to stay with Delsie. Credibility is strained, but kids reading this short chapter series won’t mind. (It is one of the long-standing Stepping Stones series of early readers and chapter books.) Each of these "color" ghost stories features different characters and gimmicks, sure to make fans want more. Could purple be next? (Ghost story. 7-9)
Pub Date: March 22, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-375-86649-4
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2011
Delightfully smart and deliciously funny—don’t miss it.
The Dunderheads are back in another amusing caper that’s sure to please fans of their earlier exploits (The Dunderheads, 2009).
Once again, Einstein narrates with tongue-in-cheek, deadpan humor. Along with his friends, he expects the last day of school to mean that they are rid of their nemesis/teacher, the evil Miss Breakbone. Sadly, they are wrong. Children and teacher alike try out for roles as extras in a film and find themselves together again. Worse, Miss Breakbone fingers Spider as a thief when a cat burglar strikes. Einstein, of course, comes up with the perfect plan to capture the real thief, capitalizing as before on his friends’ varied interests and abilities. Unfortunately, his plan falls through, and all of the kids wind up in the poky. How they succeed in solving the crimes and turning the tables on their arch enemy, Miss Breakbone, strains credibility but entertains all the same. It's not as though credibility is the point, after all. At least half the fun comes from Roberts’ clever illustrations, created in watercolor, pen and ink. As before, each Dunderhead’s appearance reveals his or her individuality; new characters are equally clearly limned. Some sly references might go over the heads of the intended audience (don’t miss Liza as Sally Bowles in the line-up of aspiring extras), but readers of all ages will enjoy poring over the pages to find the hidden humor.
Delightfully smart and deliciously funny—don’t miss it. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: April 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7636-4543-4
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Feb. 4, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2012
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