Informative and stirring.
In this adaptation of a memoir for adults, Arceneaux recounts becoming the first pediatric cancer survivor and person with a prosthetic body part to enter space.
At age 10, Arceneaux was diagnosed with osteosarcoma. She and her parents traveled from Louisiana to Memphis, Tennessee, so that she could be treated at renowned children’s hospital St. Jude. Treatment included chemotherapy and ultimately a prosthetic bone implant in her leg. Arceneaux candidly details nausea from chemo, painful physical therapy, and grief at losing her hair. Arceneaux’s descriptions of setbacks and surgeries, bullying, adults who treated her with kid gloves, and her growing acceptance of her scars will resonate with readers, especially those who have faced similar situations. Fortunately, St. Jude’s supportive staff and the friendship of fellow cancer patients bolstered her; she resolved to someday help kids with cancer herself. Fulfilling her resolution, Arceneaux studied to be a physician assistant and, at age 28, landed a job at St. Jude. Soon after, she was chosen to participate in Inspiration4: a mission sending four civilians into space to raise $200 million for St. Jude. Her accounts of astronaut training, including spinning in a centrifuge and climbing Mount Rainier, are eye-opening. Her time in space is alternately joyful and sobering as she twirls in the spacecraft sans gravity, contemplates Earth’s beauty, and honors friends and family who died of cancer, including her father. Though the pacing occasionally feels uneven, the conversational narration makes this an accessible, engaging read.
Informative and stirring. (Memoir. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 8, 2023
ISBN: 9780593443880
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Convergent
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2023
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere.
This book is buzzing with trivia.
Follow a swarm of bees as they leave a beekeeper’s apiary in search of a new home. As the scout bees traverse the fields, readers are provided with a potpourri of facts and statements about bees. The information is scattered—much like the scout bees—and as a result, both the nominal plot and informational content are tissue-thin. There are some interesting facts throughout the book, but many pieces of trivia are too, well trivial, to prove useful. For example, as the bees travel, readers learn that “onion flowers are round and fluffy” and “fennel is a plant that is used in cooking.” Other facts are oversimplified and as a result are not accurate. For example, monofloral honey is defined as “made by bees who visit just one kind of flower” with no acknowledgment of the fact that bees may range widely, and swarm activity is described as a springtime event, when it can also occur in summer and early fall. The information in the book, such as species identification and measurement units, is directed toward British readers. The flat, thin-lined artwork does little to enhance the story, but an “I spy” game challenging readers to find a specific bee throughout is amusing.
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere. (Informational picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-500-65265-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A celebration of progressive Judaism and an inclusive primer on Jews making a difference in the world.
This wide-ranging collection of short biographies highlights 36 Jewish figures from around the globe and across centuries.
Explicitly pushing back against homogenous depictions of Jewish people, the authors demonstrate the ethnic, racial, and gender diversity of Jews. Each spread includes a brief biography paired with a stylized portrait reminiscent of those in Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo’s Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls (2016). A pull quote or sidebar accompanies each subject; sidebars include “Highlighting Jewish Paralympic Athletes,” “Jewish Stringed Music,” and “Ethiopian Jews in Israel.” Kleinrock and Pritchard’s roster of subjects makes a compelling case for the vastness and variety of Jewish experience—from a contemporary Ethiopian American teen to a 16th-century Portuguese philanthropist—while still allowing them to acknowledge better-known figures. The entry on Raquel Montoya-Lewis, an associate justice of the Washington Supreme Court and an enrolled member of the Pueblo Isleta Indian tribe, discusses her mission to reimagine criminal justice for Indigenous people; the sidebar name-checks Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan. The bios are organized around themes of Jewish principles such as Pikuach Nefesh (translated from the Hebrew as “to save a life”) and Adam Yachid (translated as the “unique value of every person”); each section includes an introduction to an organization that centers diverse Jewish experiences.
A celebration of progressive Judaism and an inclusive primer on Jews making a difference in the world. (resources) (Nonfiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2024
ISBN: 9780063285712
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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