History and nature are inspirations for this debut alphabet book about Plum Island.
A descendant of a lighthouse keeper on Plum Island, off the coast of Massachusetts, the author of this picture book for all ages shaped short poems around each letter of the alphabet, inspired by the place’s history, industry, and rich wildlife. Some pieces are described in the introduction as “found poems,” including words taken from “signs, blogs, books, maps, and videos.” The regional focus could limit the work’s appeal, but there is much to delight American history buffs as well as readers unfamiliar with the island. The homemade scrapbook design encompasses captivating images of old newspaper articles, pages from a 1911 family diary, uncredited historical and contemporary photographs, and a remarkable document signed by President George Washington in 1790 appointing the island’s first superintendent of lighthouses. This archival material illustrates each evocative prose poem by Bogard. An aerial photo introduces “Barrier Island” (“Barrier Island / Fragile and narrow / Protecting the mainland / Absorbing the force / Of the ocean and storms”). An old, sepia-toned photo of a young girl accompanies “Grace” (“Look into my eyes / I’m Grace / I took charge of / The Light / For my father / In times of need”). Among other intriguing subjects are “Clams” and “Old tales.” “Walking to school from Plum Island” features a 1910 newspaper clipping about the keeper’s son, “a sturdy lad.”
An unexpectedly soulful and absorbing chronicle of regional history in a scrapbook-style work.Pub Date: April 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-944393-81-6
Page Count: 50
Publisher: Piscataqua Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 5, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Categories: ART & PHOTOGRAPHY | NATURE | HISTORY
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PERSPECTIVES
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
A lucid (in the sky with diamonds) look at the hows, whys, and occasional demerits of altering one’s mind.
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Building on his lysergically drenched book How to Change Your Mind (2018), Pollan looks at three plant-based drugs and the mental effects they can produce.
The disastrous war on drugs began under Nixon to control two classes of perceived enemies: anti-war protestors and Black citizens. That cynical effort, writes the author, drives home the point that “societies condone the mind-changing drugs that help uphold society’s rule and ban the ones that are seen to undermine it.” One such drug is opium, for which Pollan daringly offers a recipe for home gardeners to make a tea laced with the stuff, producing “a radical and by no means unpleasant sense of passivity.” You can’t overthrow a government when so chilled out, and the real crisis is the manufacture of synthetic opioids, which the author roundly condemns. Pollan delivers a compelling backstory: This section dates to 1997, but he had to leave portions out of the original publication to keep the Drug Enforcement Administration from his door. Caffeine is legal, but it has stronger effects than opium, as the author learned when he tried to quit: “I came to see how integral caffeine is to the daily work of knitting ourselves back together after the fraying of consciousness during sleep.” Still, back in the day, the introduction of caffeine to the marketplace tempered the massive amounts of alcohol people were drinking even though a cup of coffee at noon will keep banging on your brain at midnight. As for the cactus species that “is busy transforming sunlight into mescaline right in my front yard”? Anyone can grow it, it seems, but not everyone will enjoy effects that, in one Pollan experiment, “felt like a kind of madness.” To his credit, the author also wrestles with issues of cultural appropriation, since in some places it’s now easier for a suburbanite to grow San Pedro cacti than for a Native American to use it ceremonially.
A lucid (in the sky with diamonds) look at the hows, whys, and occasional demerits of altering one’s mind.Pub Date: July 6, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-29690-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Penguin Press
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
Categories: BODY, MIND & SPIRIT | SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY | PSYCHOLOGY | NATURE | BODY, MIND & SPIRIT | HEALTH & FITNESS
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