The heroic events that began the Communist era in China are recounted by a favorite author (herself born in China) who has written a distinguished list of books on American history for children. Basing her anecdotal saga on interviews with a dozen of the remaining 600 survivors of the March as well as on books included in an extensive bibliography, Fritz uses authentic details to make the hardships and triumphs immediate and personal: a bridge anchored by an instant innovation born of necessity—bamboo baskets weighted with stones; Mao, too sick to walk, writing a letter for a homesick, illiterate soldier; a whole army disguised as the enemy Nationalists, marching along one side of a river while the real Nationalists kept pace on the other. Fritz makes vivid the poverty and despair provoked by grasping landlords that gave this army, largely made up of peasants, such dogged perseverance. The epic crossing of the high mountains on the borders of Tibet and the treacherous, trackless "Grasslands" make an inspirational story worthy of the place it still holds in the Chinese imagination. The account concludes with a brief summary of subsequent history: the alliance with the Nationalists to drive out the Japanese, the postwar accession to power and the successes of the Communist regime, the tragedy of the Cultural Revolution. This vivid account should go a long way towards making a radically different, vitally important country more comprehensive to American children; it belongs in every library.
Pub Date: Feb. 29, 1988
ISBN: 0399215123
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1988
Paulsen recalls personal experiences that he incorporated into Hatchet (1987) and its three sequels, from savage attacks by moose and mosquitoes to watching helplessly as a heart-attack victim dies. As usual, his real adventures are every bit as vivid and hair-raising as those in his fiction, and he relates them with relish—discoursing on “The Fine Art of Wilderness Nutrition,” for instance: “Something that you would never consider eating, something completely repulsive and ugly and disgusting, something so gross it would make you vomit just looking at it, becomes absolutely delicious if you’re starving.” Specific examples follow, to prove that he knows whereof he writes. The author adds incidents from his Iditarod races, describes how he made, then learned to hunt with, bow and arrow, then closes with methods of cooking outdoors sans pots or pans. It’s a patchwork, but an entertaining one, and as likely to win him new fans as to answer questions from his old ones. (Autobiography. 10-13)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-385-32650-5
Page Count: 150
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2000
Possibly the concision and flavor will increase the book's attractiveness to those who need it most, and the list of sources...
From the man who is usually "On the Other Side of the Tracks," a judicious selection of quotations from runaways and emancipated men revealing the texture of the slave experience.
This is not, like Meltzer's In Their Own Words, a history, but the book's structure does approximate chronological impressions: African capture and ocean voyage, the auction block, plantation life with its codes of behavior, responses to emancipation and—briefly—the letdown thereafter. Most of the quotations come from the (edited) records of 19th century abolitionist societies or the Federal Writers' Project interviews of the 1930's so there are few statements from the ones who got away (e.g. Douglass); Lester does excerpt from Josiah Henson and others who wrote autobiographies but concentrates on equally eloquent unknowns, often in their own dialects (depending on the interviewer). The passages are short, some no more than a sentence ("Now that slavery is over, I don't want to be in nary 'nother slavery, and if nary 'nother come up, I wouldn't stay here"), supplementing the editor's pointed commentary. Several themes emerge: the fading of African memories, antagonism between house and field, a subculture of two-faced intelligence, attempts at organized rebellion, emotional release in music.
Possibly the concision and flavor will increase the book's attractiveness to those who need it most, and the list of sources is valuable for further study.Pub Date: Oct. 31, 1968
ISBN: 978-0-14-131001-5
Page Count: 180
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1968
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