As Wild Bill Hickok “says” in his blurb: “Factual as far as it goes.” (glossary, further reading, index) (Nonfiction. 8-10)
Following other books in the What if You Met…(a Pirate, 2004; a Knight, 2006) series, this title somewhat less successfully tackles the subject of cowboys.
The image of the handsome cowboy idealized in movies, “on the lookout for pretty schoolteachers and Indians on the warpath,” is shattered by Jacob McHugh Peavey, the “real deal,” unwashed and unshaven. Only careful readers will determine that Jake’s heyday was around 1860-1885. He’s white, although Adkins notes that “[a]bout half of [cowboys] are African-American, Indian, or Hispanic.” Cowgirls are dismissed in a side note. Given this limited perspective, youngsters interested in diversity in the Wild West will want to look elsewhere. Those not familiar with the history of Native Americans may require a source to understand potentially confusing descriptions of Franciscan missionaries who introduced horses in the Southwest as “relatively gentle and patient” conquerors who received an assist from European diseases or the “hostile native” tribes or youth that may on occasion pose a threat to Jake. (Source notes—a list of titles consulted—are provided, but there are no specific citations.) However, children enamored of cowboy gear and cattle drives will find a plethora of information about and detailed illustrations of saddles, guns, brands, the chuck wagon and more, each topic covered in one or two pages.
As Wild Bill Hickok “says” in his blurb: “Factual as far as it goes.” (glossary, further reading, index) (Nonfiction. 8-10)Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-59643-149-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Joan Trumpauer Mulholland’s is not a name that is familiar in children’s books; this is an excellent opportunity to correct...
A young white Southern woman becomes an active participant in the civil rights struggle.
Born to staunch segregationists in Virginia, Joan Trumpauer Mulholland grew up in the 1950s, but a determination for equal rights for both white and black people led her to take part in lunch-counter demonstrations and become a Freedom Rider. Incarceration in an infamous Mississippi prison did not change her beliefs, and she joined the 1963 March on Washington. In 2013, her son, Loki Mulholland, produced a film about her life entitled An Ordinary Hero. In this book, he and Fairwell present important events in brief but dramatic vignettes. Mulholland’s courage and determination are stressed and explained in terms that young readers can understand. When as a child she first sees a black schoolhouse, “Joan’s soul was rattled. This was not fair.” The colorful cut-paper–collage illustrations by Janssen feature photographs, photographic imagery, and scenes that should be familiar to those studying the time period. A biography for middle graders by Loki Mulholland, also called She Stood for Freedom, publishes simultaneously.
Joan Trumpauer Mulholland’s is not a name that is familiar in children’s books; this is an excellent opportunity to correct an oversight. (timeline) (Picture book/biography. 8-10)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-62972-176-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
Armchair thrills aplenty for Anthropocene readers.
Artful digital collage makes it easy to imagine memorable modern encounters with a hippo-eating snake and other extinct creatures.
Except for a species of dwarf elephant that was about the same size as the sheep among which it poses here, the animals on display were all outsized—ranging from the evocatively named Titanoboa and a hawk-sized dragonfly dubbed Meganeura to 8-foot-long prehistoric beavers and the armored frog Beelzebufo. Mendez superimposes photorealistic digital images of each into contemporary settings, often to dramatic effect: the aforementioned amphibian is posed nose to nose with a German shepherd, for instance, and a white woman looks understandably shocked at the 7-foot-long Arthropleura, a Carboniferous millipede, rearing up on her kitchen counter. Along with an opening overview and closing notes about fossil-hunting, Rake supplies basic facts about each creature’s size, range, and probable habits. Rake and Mendez repeat the formula for equally memorable scenarios in the co-published Prehistoric Giants, Prehistoric Predators, and Prehistoric Sea Beasts.
Armchair thrills aplenty for Anthropocene readers. (index) (Nonfiction. 8-10)Pub Date: April 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5124-1159-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Hungry Tomato/Lerner
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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