by Irène Cohen-Janca ; illustrated by Maurizio A.C. Quarello ; translated by Paula Ayer ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2015
Haunting and memorable.
In World War II Poland, a distinguished and visionary Jewish doctor lives and dies by his humanity.
In this fact-based story, Simon, a self-described “Jewish orphan, prisoner of the Warsaw Ghetto,” narrates the tragic tale of Janusz Korczak, who had established a progressive orphanage in Warsaw. When the staff (except for the gentiles) and children were sent to the walled-in ghetto in 1940, Korczak, like so many others, tried to reason with the occupying Germans but was briefly imprisoned. In 1942, during a roundup, he nobly accompanied the children to their deaths in Treblinka. In this translation from the Italian, Cohen-Janca gives Simon a sure voice that is observant and grounded in reality as he describes Korczak’s philosophy of empowering children while also depicting the despair and death in the ghetto: “The Germans don’t want Jewish children to grow up.” Quarello’s softly textured graphite drawings on sepia-colored paper sustain the dark, foreboding air of the story with their stark depictions of buildings and barbed wire. A double gatefold of the children on their final walk to the transport trains is set against an all-white background and is achingly moving. Holocaust stories can be most powerful when seen through the eyes of an individual, and Simon, though a fictional child, is an unforgettable witness.
Haunting and memorable. (afterword, further reading, resources) (Historical fiction. 11-15)Pub Date: July 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-55451-715-2
Page Count: 68
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
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PERSPECTIVES
by Melvin Berger & Gilda Berger ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001
An introduction to ancient Egypt and the Pharaohs buried in the Valley of the Kings. The authors begin with how archaeologist Howard Carter found the tomb of King Tut, then move back 3,000 years to the time of Thutmosis I, who built the first tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Finally they describe the building of the tomb of a later Pharaoh, Ramses II. The backward-forward narration is not always easy to follow, and the authors attribute emotions to the Pharaohs without citation. For example, “Thutmosis III was furious [with Hatshepsut]. He was especially annoyed that she planned to be buried in KV 20, the tomb of her father.” Since both these people lived 3,500 years ago, speculation on who was furious or annoyed should be used with extreme caution. And the tangled intrigue of Egyptian royalty is not easily sorted out in so brief a work. Throughout, though, there are spectacular photographs of ancient Egyptian artifacts, monuments, tomb paintings, jewels, and death masks that will appeal to young viewers. The photographs of the exposed mummies of Ramses II, King Tut, and Seti I are compelling. More useful for the hauntingly beautiful photos than the text. (brief bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7922-7223-4
Page Count: 64
Publisher: National Geographic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2001
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by Raymond Bial ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2001
Bial (A Handful of Dirt, p. 299, etc.) conjures up ghostly images of the Wild West with atmospheric photos of weathered clapboard and a tally of evocative names: Tombstone, Deadwood, Goldfield, Progress, Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickock, the OK Corral. Tracing the life cycle of the estimated 30,000 ghost towns (nearly 1300 in Utah alone), he captures some echo of their bustling, rough-and-tumble past with passages from contemporary observers like Mark Twain: “If a man wanted a fight on his hands without any annoying delay, all he had to do was appear in public in a white shirt or stove-pipe hat, and he would be accommodated.” Among shots of run-down mining works, dusty, deserted streets, and dark eaves silhouetted against evening skies, Bial intersperses 19th-century photos and prints for contrast, plus an occasional portrait of a grizzled modern resident. He suggests another sort of resident too: “At night that plaintive hoo-hoo may be an owl nesting in a nearby saguaro cactus—or the moaning of a restless ghost up in the graveyard.” Children seeking a sense of this partly mythic time and place in American history, or just a delicious shiver, will linger over his tribute. (bibliography) (Nonfiction. 9-11)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-618-06557-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2001
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