“The Code of Chivalry was very sweet, but an ambitious knight went about whacking off arms and heads as often as possible.” In a similarly eye-opening follow up to What If You Met a Pirate? (2004), Adkins brushes aside common misconceptions about knights and knightly behavior, inviting readers to “Meet the Real Deal”—one Sir Guy of Wareham—and conducting a brisk tour of his administrative duties, along with glimpses of castle life and staffing, how to don armor, the course of the Crusades and like topics. Furnishing plenty of small figures in plate armor and other period dress, many playfully depicted within a stained glass window or on a long strip à la the Bayeaux Tapestry, the author dishes up a generalized but entertaining survey, with just a dash or two of gore, which will be snatched up by young squires and damsels. (Nonfiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2006
ISBN: 1-59643-148-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
In his absorbing picture-book biography aimed at a slightly older audience, Kroll (Robert Fulton, 1999, etc.) immediately informs readers that Penn was a rebel. “Born to a life of privilege, William Penn chose dissent instead,” ignoring the status quo in favor of following his convictions, in an era of great religious and political tumult. Drawn by the belief that every individual could communicate directly with God, Penn became a Quaker; his desire for religious freedom and tolerance prompted him and his followers to travel to the land that would become Pennsylvania. Arrested over and over again for espousing his beliefs and betrayed by his business manager, Penn struggled all his life because of his convictions. The text is highly event-oriented and packed with information; the portrayal of Penn is somewhat impersonal, but readers will learn of and be impressed by his accomplishments. Himler’s watercolors accurately conjure time and place, and underscore more somber elements of the story. (chronology) (Picture book/biography. 9-12)
Pub Date: March 15, 2000
ISBN: 0-8234-1439-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2000
In glossy textbook style, this latest entry in The Other Half of History series (Women of Ancient Greece, p. 1746, etc.) illuminates the days and lives of wealthy, middle-class, and poor women who lived thousands of years ago in Egypt. The large-scale format of the book allows elaborate full-color photographs to appear on every page, often accompanied by sidebars with brief quotations from ancient Egyptian writers. These provide the book’s main source of interest; Macdonald resorts to a textbook writing style, with deliberately short, declarative sentences that make the material sound more somber than it is. Nevertheless, this book provides a useful tracing of the role of women in history, and would be a good companion reference to Eloise Jarvis McGraw’s classic Mara, Daughter of the Nile (1953) or Sonia Levitin’s Escape from Egypt (1994). (maps, glossary, further reading, index) (Nonfiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: Nov. 30, 1999
ISBN: 0-87226-567-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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