This notwithstanding, Talbott has produced a handsome, valuable companion to River of Dreams (2009) and an accessible and...
Watercolorist and illustrator Talbott, a Cole admirer and evangelist, has produced a child-friendly paean to the brief (1801-1848) but productive life of an American landscape-painting pioneer.
Born in Britain, Cole immigrated to the United States as a teen, worked as an itinerant craftsman, and began art studies in Philadelphia before moving to New York. Soon, prompted by a patron, Cole took his first voyage up the Hudson and discovered his passion for the American landscape. Though his life was brief, his dramatic paintings struck a deep chord and spawned a wholly new, uniquely American “school”—the Hudson River landscape school. Talbott’s admiration is clear, but backmatter is sorely needed: There is no glossary, no timeline, and little detail to help readers grasp the impressive size and ambition of Cole’s two major painting series: The Course of Empire (five paintings at 39.5 inches by 63.5 inches each) and The Voyage of Life (four paintings at approximately 52 inches by 72 inches each). Readers will long for context to flesh out cursory references to such influences as England’s J.M.W. Turner, mentor American artist John Trumbull, and Cole’s artistic progeny, Asher Durand and Frederic Church, as well as the Hudson River landscape school itself.
This notwithstanding, Talbott has produced a handsome, valuable companion to River of Dreams (2009) and an accessible and inspired introduction to an important, influential promoter of the unspoiled American landscape. (Picture book/biography. 6-10)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-399-54867-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses.
An NBA star pays tribute to the influence of his grandfather.
In the same vein as his Long Shot (2009), illustrated by Frank Morrison, this latest from Paul prioritizes values and character: “My granddad Papa Chilly had dreams that came true,” he writes, “so maybe if I listen and watch him, / mine will too.” So it is that the wide-eyed Black child in the simply drawn illustrations rises early to get to the playground hoops before anyone else, watches his elder working hard and respecting others, hears him cheering along with the rest of the family from the stands during games, and recalls in a prose afterword that his grandfather wasn’t one to lecture but taught by example. Paul mentions in both the text and the backmatter that Papa Chilly was the first African American to own a service station in North Carolina (his presumed dream) but not that he was killed in a robbery, which has the effect of keeping the overall tone positive and the instructional content one-dimensional. Figures in the pictures are mostly dark-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-81003-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
A reasonably solid grounding in constitutional rights, their flexibility, lacunae, and hard-won corrections, despite a few...
Shamir offers an investigation of the foundations of freedoms in the United States via its founding documents, as well as movements and individuals who had great impacts on shaping and reshaping those institutions.
The opening pages of this picture book get off to a wobbly start with comments such as “You know that feeling you get…when you see a wide open field that you can run through without worrying about traffic or cars? That’s freedom.” But as the book progresses, Shamir slowly steadies the craft toward that wide-open field of freedom. She notes the many obvious-to-us-now exclusivities that the founding political documents embodied—that the entitled, white, male authors did not extend freedom to enslaved African-Americans, Native Americans, and women—and encourages readers to learn to exercise vigilance and foresight. The gradual inclusion of these left-behind people paints a modestly rosy picture of their circumstances today, and the text seems to give up on explaining how Native Americans continue to be left behind. Still, a vital part of what makes freedom daunting is its constant motion, and that is ably expressed. Numerous boxed tidbits give substance to the bigger political picture. Who were the abolitionists and the suffragists, what were the Montgomery bus boycott and the “Uprising of 20,000”? Faulkner’s artwork conveys settings and emotions quite well, and his drawing of Ruby Bridges is about as darling as it gets. A helpful timeline and bibliography appear as endnotes.
A reasonably solid grounding in constitutional rights, their flexibility, lacunae, and hard-won corrections, despite a few misfires. (Informational picture book. 6-10)Pub Date: May 2, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-54728-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
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