Piven makes presidents, Walter Wick–style, from assemblages of small toys, jelly beans, plastic ears, cutlery, American flag pins, dismembered doll limbs, and other found objects, creating 16 caricatures that riff on Presidential foibles or backgrounds. The combative Andy Jackson’s nose, for instance, is a boxing glove; Jimmy Carter’s, a pair of peanuts; and the current Bush sports a hot dog (for his baseball connection) beneath broken-bun brows. Piven captions each head shot with a brief anecdote or Presidential bon mot. Capped by a complete gallery of thumbnail-sized official portraits, this helps to put human faces on many of our Chief Executives, though it’s neither as richly detailed, nor as politically balanced, as Judith St. George’s So You Want to Be President!, illustrated with Caldecott-winning art by David Small (2000). (source list) (Picture book/nonfiction. 8-10)
Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-689-86880-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2004
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
In what has, for no discernable reason, become a rush to publish biographies of Bell, this emerges as the least formal, most approachable of the pack. MacLeod (I Heard a Little Baa, 1998) takes the great inventor, familiarly dubbed “AGB,” from Edinburgh to Ontario, on to Boston, and finally to his estate in Nova Scotia, giving his public and private lives equal attention, capturing his vast range of interest from aeronautics to audiology, and bringing his familiar exploits to life. A stubby caricature of Bell guides readers through full but not overcrowded collages of family photos, manuscript pages, simple diagrams, period advertisements, and newspaper illustrations. This is just a glimpse of the man, of course, and those who want to take a longer look can start with either the web sites listed at the back, or move on to Tom L. Matthews’s Always Inventing (p. 69). (index) (Biography. 8-10)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 1-55074-456-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
To the true story of Mary Anning, a pre-Darwin fossil hunter who made a major discovery at the age of 11, Anholt adds a folklorish spin. Derided by other children and set apart by surviving a bolt of lightning, Mary assembles such an impressive collection of “snakestones” and “curiosities” from the clay cliffs around her Dorset village that two female scientists take her under their wings. Later, after the death of her father, known as “Pepper” for his speckled beard, she meets a similarly speckled dog, who becomes her constant companion and, before disappearing, leads her to a giant, spectacular marine fossil. Tumbling cottages and spectral dinosaurs across a crumpled landscape, combining swirls of vivid color with disparate perspectives, Moxley creates a hectic, feverish visual rhythm for the tale, but anchors her scenes with Mary’s small, solid figure, in no-nonsense braids and brown shift. A tale that is frequently, and more conventionally, told elsewhere, it lends itself well to such an atmospheric, crackling rendition. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-531-30148-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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