In her first book for young readers, personal-finance expert Chatzky offers straight talk on all things related to money—where it came from, how it’s made, how to earn it and how to save it, everything from gross domestic product to gross viruses on paper money. Having spent three months traveling the country and talking with kids, the author presents questions and answers in a volume attractively designed in a kid-friendly manner, with plenty of illustrations, charts, lists and sidebars for fun facts and kids’ questions. One thing not learned on the trip, apparently, was not to take all middle-school students’ answers at face value, as readers will see wise-guy responses, illogical explanations and self-centered comments mixed in with the mostly thoughtful and sincere questions and statements. Still, the clear and conversational text, coupled with the inviting format, will appeal to young readers, who should enjoy learning about a subject important to them. (appendices, map, glossary, web resources, index) (Nonfiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4169-9472-5
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
A fascinating twin narrative, though not quite the story the title suggests.
In 1946, The Adventures of Superman radio show took on the Ku Klux Klan in an effort to teach young listeners lessons about tolerance and standing up to bigotry.
The first episode of the 16-part “Clan of the Fiery Cross” aired on June 10, 1946, to “dramatiz[e] the realities of the Ku Klux Klan to a generation of young radio listeners.” From the beginning, Superman had a social conscience, and one thread of this narrative traces the origins of Superman and his rise to stardom as a comic-book and radio hero. The other thread examines the history and mid-20th-century resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan. But it’s not until late in the volume that the collision between Superman and the KKK occurs, making it seem like a work that isn’t quite sure of what it wants to be, or for whom it was written. With sentences such as, “Brown even got inside a secret subunit of the Kavalier Klub that called itself the Ass-Tearers and printed on its calling card the image of a corkscrew—its implement of choice for torturing and disemboweling its victims,” this often reads more like journalism than children’s literature.
A fascinating twin narrative, though not quite the story the title suggests. (bibliography, sources, index) (Nonfiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4263-0915-1
Page Count: 160
Publisher: National Geographic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
An excellent and important introduction to a man who went from freedom to slavery and back again.
Most readers know something about the Underground Railroad, when African Americans went from slavery to freedom, but this volume presents the opposite scenario: the enslavement of thousands of free Northern blacks.
Solomon Northup was one of 400,000 free blacks living in the United States in 1841. He was living in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., with his wife and three children, when two white men offered him good money to play violin for the circus they represented. Solomon jumped at the chance and soon found himself captured, beaten and transported to Louisiana, where he suffered a 12-year odyssey as a slave. Brevity, the focus on one man’s story and a lively prose style make this an unusually affecting and important narrative. All of the dialogue and many of the details come from Northup’s own memoir, Twelve Years a Slave, published in 1853. Photographs, maps and reproductions of a bill of sale and various newspaper images complement the text. Unfortunately, sources are not always provided, as for a Frederick Douglass quotation on the final page, and the meager bibliography offers no sources for young readers, a shame since so many fine sources exist.
An excellent and important introduction to a man who went from freedom to slavery and back again. (afterword, time line, online resources, index) (Nonfiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4263-0937-3
Page Count: 128
Publisher: National Geographic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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