by Jack Lefcourt & illustrated by Jack Lefcourt ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 15, 2010
The story of one of the world’s oldest religions is folded into an overview of world history. Influential in at least two other great religions, Christianity and Islam, Judaism and its people have also been affected by the events and evolving beliefs and perceptions of numerous leaders throughout the past. Lefcourt offers a sound introduction with a combination of cartoon drawings broken into several panels on each page against pale blue backdrops with an easy-to-read, flowing text to relate the world’s historical highlights in short-story–style segments. General facts, important dates, people, events, maps, a timeline and puzzles are woven into the long Jewish history with yellow highlighted passages to point out specific episodes, consequences, incidents and even outcomes related to the Jewish people. From the Ten Commandments to the Fall of the Roman Empire, the Middle Ages, Europe’s Renaissance, the beginnings of Zionism, the Holocaust, American Judaism and modern Israel to the unknown future, this volume leaves readers with an understanding that the past is an important reminder for Jews, who will always move forward with hope and determination. (Nonfiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: Feb. 15, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-60280-132-5
Page Count: 112
Publisher: KTAV
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2010
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edited by Kath Shackleton ; illustrated by Zane Whittingham ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2019
Choppy storytelling doesn’t lessen the power or truth of the stories.
Shackleton works very hard to protect readers from the stories she’s presenting.
Each chapter of this graphic novel recounts the true experiences of a Jewish child who survived the Holocaust, and the stories, told by the survivors and edited by Shackleton, can be painful to read. Arek was nearly sent to a gas chamber at Birkenau and had to watch a girl being pulled away from her mother by the guards. But each chapter ends with the child living in a safe place. This is not to say that every chapter has a happy ending. One boy sees rockets exploding during an air raid. A girl named Suzanne finds shelter on a farm far out in the country and, ironically, doesn’t learn that the war has ended until two years after it’s over. But every segment concludes on a positive note, as in: “Suzanne was eventually rescued by the Red Cross and taken to live with her grandmother in…England.” This makes some sections of the book feel truncated, but readers may be grateful for the relief. Suzanne even ends up surrounded by farm animals in a truly lovely illustration. Whittingham’s character designs are inventive and, in their bleakest moments, resemble the animated sequences in Pink Floyd’s The Wall, which seems appropriate, since the book was inspired by animated films from the BBC.
Choppy storytelling doesn’t lessen the power or truth of the stories. (glossary, timeline, index, recommended websites) (Graphic nonfiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4926-8892-1
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
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by Jean-Baptiste de Panafieu ; illustrated by Adrienne Barman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 1, 2020
Readers with a less-than-burning interest may struggle…or find that interest kindled by the end.
A visual history of our planet’s long career as a nursery for living things.
A brown-skinned paleontologist in a lab coat patiently guides three chattering listeners through the ages from Earth’s fiery formation through climate and other geophysical changes to the present day’s “sixth period of mass extinction.” As she goes, she rolls out polysyllabic terms and nomenclature at a rate that may leave casual readers struggling to keep up but will undoubtedly elevate the pulses of devoted young STEM-winders. Side comments from her audience add common-language context (“The Carboniferous is the age of coal…” one says, while the other concludes, “…and also the age of roaches!”). Though blocks of narrative crowd Barman’s panels, her cartoon portraits of alien-looking sea life evolving first into extinct, pop-eyed plant eaters and toothy, slavering predators, then finally familiar creatures such as us, flesh out the fossil story in lighthearted but reasonably accurate detail. (“Lighthearted” except for one scene of a poached rhino with its horn bloodily removed, that is.) Animals hog the spotlight, and a specious claim that all stars have planets mars the closing vision of new kinds of life arising both on our own world and elsewhere. Still, this French import offers an overview as coherent as it is chronologically broad…particularly for readers not intimidated by encounters with plesiadapiforms, perissodactyls, Gomphoteria, and like sesquipedalia. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10.5-by-15.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 77% of actual size.)
Readers with a less-than-burning interest may struggle…or find that interest kindled by the end. (partial glossary, index) (Informational picture book. 10-12)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4578-3
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
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