Tangled tales and knotty challenges for veteran maze runners.
Unusual journeys await young explorers in an introduction to select ancient Greek myths, legends, monsters, and sites that have been mapped onto a series of mazes.
Working on large folio spreads, Bajtlik concocts massive tangles of routes and passageways for viewers to tackle: There’s the Minotaur’s labyrinth, of course, but also intricate visual plotlines for the “Twelve Labors of Heracles,” the voyage of the Argo, the Trojan War, Odysseus’ journey home, and how Oedipus came to marry his mother. There are fanciful scenes too, such as a cross-section of fiery Mount Etna showing the forge of Hephaestus and a sea battle between Achaeans and Trojans. Mazes are present but peripheral in other scenes, such as an aerial view of the Acropolis, a “Bestiary” of 35 mythical creatures, and an overview of the ancient Olympics with 14 events identified. Tiny figures, nearly all light skinned and mostly in armor or filmy dress but occasionally naked, pose dramatically as if drawn directly from old murals and ceramics. Most bear identifying names or labels. Readers in search of less arduous versions can turn to the back, past a partial family tree of gods and heroes, to sanitized prose summaries and descriptions that (unlike the sometimes-graphic mazes) downplay the sex and violence. These summaries mention no sources but do include relevant expressions still in use, such as “Achilles’ heel” and “siren song.”
Tangled tales and knotty challenges for veteran maze runners. (Novelty. 7-10)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0964-8
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Candlewick Studio
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
An attractive volume introducing an important American to young readers.
Jane Addams’ life was dedicated to helping others.
Jane Addams knew how it felt to be sad, lonely, and in pain. Her mother died when Jane was 2, and Jane contracted spinal tuberculosis at age 4, leaving her with a crooked back and toes that pointed in. “She felt like the ugly duckling / in her storybook: / different, / unwanted, / hopeless.” So, when she rode into town with her father and saw the poverty other people faced—“the rundown shacks, / sad, hungry parents, / cold, barefoot children”—the beginnings of her social conscience were stirred. She got a good education, traveled throughout Europe, and committed herself to helping the poor. Toynbee Hall, a settlement house in London, inspired her to establish the now-famous Hull House in Chicago. At first Jane was beloved, the New York Evening Post even suggesting she run for president. But Addams became controversial for her peace efforts during World War I, and the FBI labeled her “the Most Dangerous Woman in America.” However, she went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Slade tells the purposively inspiring story with a poetic flair, and Ratterree’s pale, evocatively washed-out watercolor illustrations are richly detailed (though hands seem to be her nemesis as an artist). They make the most of the book’s oversize trim, giving space to the free-verse text. A “More about Dangerous Jane” section mostly retells the story, with a few new details added.
An attractive volume introducing an important American to young readers. (Picture book/biography. 7-10)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-56145-913-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
A patchwork production, far less seaworthy than, for instance, Sally Walker’s two titles on the subject.
The story of the first attack submarine’s drastically brief career and, nearly a century and a half later, rediscovery.
Even though it was, as the author artlessly puts it, “well-designed and well-crafted in the American spirit of invention,” the H.L. Hunley sank repeatedly in tests and never came back from its first mission in 1864. Rather than go into details about how the submarine worked (sort of), Hawk opts to extend her simply written version of its exploits with tangentially related chapters on the battle of Shiloh, the end of the Civil War, and an undocumented (she admits) legend that romantically links a gold coin found in the wreck with the sub’s captain, George Dixon, and a Southern belle named Queenie Bennet. Likewise, Wyrick’s uncaptioned reconstructions of battle scenes and the submarine underwater (which are not always placed near the actions they describe) don’t serve quite as well as the more informative period views of the vessel and its interior that have been used to illustrate other treatments. The account switches to photos and does go into somewhat more detail when describing how the wreck was found in 1995, raised in 2000, and transported to a lab; in a final chapter, a conservator and an archaeologist describe their still-ongoing restoration work.
A patchwork production, far less seaworthy than, for instance, Sally Walker’s two titles on the subject. (map, resource lists) (Nonfiction. 7-10)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-61117-788-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Young Palmetto Books
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
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