Longfellow’s famous narrative poem gains a renewed sense of foreboding and urgency thanks to Thompson’s stark and somber illustrations. Using a multi-layered technique combining individual scratchboard elements with computer scanning, composition, and coloring, Thompson’s bold art highlights the emotional intensity of Revere’s legendary ride, which culminated in the start of the Revolutionary War. The pictures, framed in black, sit opposite stark black text on vivid white background. Shadows loom, mists float, and foreground details emerge almost three-dimensionally, creating drama and tension. Notable, too, is the use of color as the flat reds and browns Revere and other people contrasts with the luminous purple and aqua of the night and the harbor. A strikingly beautiful rendering by a new talent, the inclusion of a historical note makes this version especially useful for classroom settings. (Poetry. 6-10)
Pub Date: April 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7922-7674-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: National Geographic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2000
A useful history covering the ancient practices of bartering and using commodities (salt, grain, tobacco) as media of exchange, plus the development of metal and paper currency and contemporary cashless methods of payment; handsomely illustrated with many expansive landscape paintings resembling those in the Maestros' The Discovery of the America (1991), maps, and meticulous drawings of coins and bills. A simpler, more focused treatment than Cribb's Money (in the Eyewitness format, 1990). (Nonfiction/Picture book. 7-10.)
Pub Date: March 22, 1993
ISBN: 0-395-56242-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1993
While Josephine Poole and Angela Barrett’s Joan of Arc (1998) focused on Joan as a saint, this spirited but reverent telling emphasizes Joan as a hero. In the little village of DomrÇmy, Joan did not learn to read or write, but she listened to stories of the saints’ great deeds, worked with her parents, and aided the sick. When St. Michael the Archangel first appeared to her in a great light, she was 13; he told her she would save France, and the people supported her, outfitting her with horse and armor, and a white banner with the golden lilies that symbolized the French king. All the highlights of Joan’s story are elegantly recounted here: her recognition of the king hidden in the crowd, her victory at OrlÇans, Charles’s coronation, her capture, abandonment, trial, and death by burning at the stake. Rayevsky’s drypoint and etching illustrations use the muted colors and sepia backgrounds of old prints; the simple, sinuous line and stylized faces are particularly evocative. His visual trope of a flowerlike flame in the fireplace of Joan’s home is startlingly recreated in the final image of Joan at the stake. (Picture book/biography. 6-10)
Pub Date: Sept. 15, 1999
ISBN: 0-8234-1424-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1999
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