A sensitive, discussable access point for children learning about Holocaust history.
The brave work of Irena Sendler, one of the righteous gentiles of World War II, is succinctly depicted in this new picture book.
“There are two kinds of people in this world, good and bad.” As a child, wise words from her father gave Irena a guiding principle to live by and prompted the adult Sendler to find ways to save 2,500 innocent Jewish children and babies from the horror of their Holocaust fate. She worked with a network of smugglers and shelters to hide them in carpentry boxes, vegetable sacks, and laundry piles, transporting them to orphanages and the homes of willing Christian foster families, recording the children’s names so they could be found later and burying her lists in the titular jars. And when she herself was imprisoned by the Nazis, Zegota, the Polish resistance group, bribed guards to free her so she could continue her important work. Digital and traditional art in opaque dark browns and grays illustrates the sinister period and shadowy existence of these saved children. Roy’s chronological narrative concentrates on the period from 1940 to 1944 and stresses Sendler’s heroism; it also includes invented scenes and dialogue, marking it as fiction.
A sensitive, discussable access point for children learning about Holocaust history. (afterword, author’s note, glossary, index, source notes) (Picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-62370-425-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Capstone Young Readers
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
As Wild Bill Hickok “says” in his blurb: “Factual as far as it goes.” (glossary, further reading, index) (Nonfiction. 8-10)
Following other books in the What if You Met…(a Pirate, 2004; a Knight, 2006) series, this title somewhat less successfully tackles the subject of cowboys.
The image of the handsome cowboy idealized in movies, “on the lookout for pretty schoolteachers and Indians on the warpath,” is shattered by Jacob McHugh Peavey, the “real deal,” unwashed and unshaven. Only careful readers will determine that Jake’s heyday was around 1860-1885. He’s white, although Adkins notes that “[a]bout half of [cowboys] are African-American, Indian, or Hispanic.” Cowgirls are dismissed in a side note. Given this limited perspective, youngsters interested in diversity in the Wild West will want to look elsewhere. Those not familiar with the history of Native Americans may require a source to understand potentially confusing descriptions of Franciscan missionaries who introduced horses in the Southwest as “relatively gentle and patient” conquerors who received an assist from European diseases or the “hostile native” tribes or youth that may on occasion pose a threat to Jake. (Source notes—a list of titles consulted—are provided, but there are no specific citations.) However, children enamored of cowboy gear and cattle drives will find a plethora of information about and detailed illustrations of saddles, guns, brands, the chuck wagon and more, each topic covered in one or two pages.
As Wild Bill Hickok “says” in his blurb: “Factual as far as it goes.” (glossary, further reading, index) (Nonfiction. 8-10)Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-59643-149-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This compassionate summary of Joseph Merrick's life shows young readers that people can be "measured by the soul" rather...
Di Fiore colors history with imagined scenes to humanize a man the world knew as the Elephant Man.
Joseph Merrick, introduced mid–freak show in present tense, would rather have made people laugh than scream. Instead, severe disfigurement forced him to perform in freak shows as the Elephant Man, named for the heavy lumps growing on his skin. In past tense, the author simply recounts Merrick's journey through illness and exploitation to self-acceptance, courtesy of the compassionate Dr. Frederick Treves. The author personalizes Merrick's story by imagining his reactions to being ostracized, ogled by onlookers and medical students, and smiled at by a beautiful woman; his plausible sadness, joy, and loneliness promote empathy rather than pity. Hodnefjeld's drawings respect but soften Merrick's figure, in contrast to unflinching archival photographs of his body. The eye-catching blend of photographs and line drawings, including photographed heads on drawn bodies, offers glimpses of both Merrick's time and his life. An afterword explains how Merrick died as well as the probable cause of his deformity: Proteus syndrome. A photo reconstruction suggests what Merrick might have looked like without his disease, recalling a wish he expressed in poetry: "Could I create myself anew / I would not fail in pleasing you."
This compassionate summary of Joseph Merrick's life shows young readers that people can be "measured by the soul" rather than appearances. (bibliography) (Historical fiction. 8-10)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-55451-778-7
Page Count: 52
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
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