In the 19th-century equivalent of being asked to model for a Vogue spread shot by Annie Leibovitz, little Kate Millet is noticed by the famous painter John Singer Sargent and asked to pose for him. Like Leibovitz, Sargent left nothing to chance, using wigs, designing clothes and sending a peacock and lily bulbs in preparation for his painting the following summer. Kate experiences the thrills and the tribulations of being a model: One day when Sargent chooses to paint two other girls instead, Kate spends the evening in her room crying. In the end, Kate poses for one of Sargent’s most famous paintings: Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose. Anyone interested in the life of Sargent will find the portrait of the artist and his painting through the eyes of a child model fascinating. Splendid reproductions, photos and sketches. (Nonfiction. 12+)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-55453-137-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2007
Third in a series about N.Y.C. teenager and aspiring actor Horace (``Ace'') Hobart (Ace Hits the Big Time, 1981; Ace Hits Rock Bottom, 1983), the story of his cross-country journey with his father Barney, who—orphaned in infancy and inspired by Joseph Campbell to ``follow his bliss''—decides to discover his roots. Many sleazy motels and greasy spoons later, Barney finds his grandmother, former circus performer Gloria Paulette Davenport, in Kansas City. She reveals that Barney is the child of her rebellious daughter Diana, killed in an auto accident in his babyhood, and Jimmy Martinez, a Tewa Indian still living in New Mexico's San Ildefonso pueblo. Journeying on, Barney and Ace are welcomed warmly by their newfound relatives at the pueblo, where Ace participates in an intense ceremonial corn dance and is given the name ``Eagle Feather.'' While much of the plot is implausible (particularly the Indians' ready acceptance of the Hobarts), the characters and settings here are vivid and believable. Ace's narrative, interspersed with postcards to his mother and sister, his girlfriend Raven Galvez, and his ``gang'' (the Falcons) back home, is reminiscent of Ron Koertge's and Randy Powell's books, by turns funny and compelling. (Fiction. 12+)
Pub Date: March 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-385-32035-3
Page Count: 182
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1994
This first in a new YA series, The Asian American Experience, is adapted from the author's 500-plus-page Strangers from a Different Shore (1989); it chronicles Asian immigration to the US and Canada between 1849 and the Immigration Act of 1924, which prohibited it. Takaki, a professor of ethnic studies at Berkeley, makes good use of oral histories and immigrants' writings as well as numerous b&w photos (not always clearly reproduced) to vivify the period, presenting experiences of Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, and Asian Indians and explaining the reasons compelling them to leave their homelands and the strong demands from abroad for labor, especially from the US. Of particular interest are differences in Asian experiences in Hawaii compared to those on the mainland; Takaki also contrasts the experiences of women. A final chapter describes the time at sea en route and the Asians' reception on arrival. The Asian perspective, including examples from the author's family, make this well-written title particularly valuable, although it's (of necessity) somewhat repetitive. Map; chronology; bibliography (including some children's books); index. (Nonfiction. 12+)
Pub Date: Jan. 18, 1994
ISBN: 0-7910-2176-9
Page Count: 128
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1994
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