History made relevant.
A map-based view of American history.
Opening with a carefully shaded, watercolor-and–colored pencil depiction of a green-and-blue Earth, Thermes, a map illustrator, describes how early humans “moved across the land and around the world in search of animals and plants to eat, fresh water to drink, and safe shelter to rest—as living creatures do.” These themes persist throughout as she focuses on how methods of survival become multilayered systems of oppression. It’s as if Howard Zinn wrote a children’s book—instead of focusing on presidents and other White men, Thermes demonstrates how Indigenous people, African Americans, and immigrants form the foundation and framework of American history. Describing the founding of the United States, she writes, “European colonizers came to North America and struggled over who could claim the Native peoples’ homelands as their own.” Devoting a full spread to U.S. territories like Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the author/illustrator names the Indigenous peoples who still live there. Far too often history classes for children relegate Black, Indigenous, and immigrant history to side units, but this book can—and should—replace any text that doesn’t rightfully center those narratives. One flaw is that the work skips over everything between 1965 and 2001 (including the AIDS crisis), but this is nevertheless a necessary addition to any educational institution or the personal library of any kid who wants to “work toward a better future for all who live upon the land.”
History made relevant. (afterword, selected sources, timeline) (Informational picture book. 8-13)Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2023
ISBN: 9781419743894
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
An authentic and moving time capsule of middle school angst, trauma, and joy.
Through the author’s own childhood diary entries, a seventh grader details her inner life before and after 9/11.
Alyssa’s diary entries start in September 2000, in the first week of her seventh grade year. She’s 11 and dealing with typical preteen concerns—popularity and anxiety about grades—along with other things more particular to her own life. She’s shuffling between Queens and Manhattan to share time between her divorced parents and struggling with thick facial hair and classmates who make her feel like she’s “not a whole person” due to her mixed White and Puerto Rican heritage. Alyssa is endlessly earnest and awkward as she works up the courage to talk to her crush, Alejandro; gushes about her dreams of becoming a shoe designer; and tries to solve her burgeoning unibrow problem. The diaries also have a darker side, as a sense of impending doom builds as the entries approach 9/11, especially because Alyssa’s father works in finance in the World Trade Center. As a number of the diary entries are taken directly from the author’s originals, they effortlessly capture the loud, confusing feelings middle school brings out. The artwork, in its muted but effective periwinkle tones, lends a satisfying layer to the diary’s accessible and delightful format.
An authentic and moving time capsule of middle school angst, trauma, and joy. (author's note) (Graphic memoir. 8-13)Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-77427-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Like oil itself, this is a book that needs to be handled with special care.
In 1977, the oil carrier Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons of oil into a formerly pristine Alaskan ocean inlet, killing millions of birds, animals, and fish. Despite a cleanup, crude oil is still there.
The Winters foretold the destructive powers of the atomic bomb allusively in The Secret Project (2017), leaving the actuality to the backmatter. They make no such accommodations to young audiences in this disturbing book. From the dark front cover, on which oily blobs conceal a seabird, to the rescuer’s sad face on the back, the mother-son team emphasizes the disaster. A relatively easy-to-read and poetically heightened text introduces the situation. Oil is pumped from the Earth “all day long, all night long, / day after day, year after year” in “what had been unspoiled land, home to Native people // and thousands of caribou.” The scale of extraction is huge: There’s “a giant pipeline” leading to “enormous ships.” Then, crash. Rivers of oil gush out over three full-bleed wordless pages. Subsequent scenes show rocks, seabirds, and sea otters covered with oil. Finally, 30 years later, animals have returned to a cheerful scene. “But if you lift a rock… // oil / seeps / up.” For an adult reader, this is heartbreaking. How much more difficult might this be for an animal-loving child?
Like oil itself, this is a book that needs to be handled with special care. (author’s note, further reading) (Informational picture book. 9-12)Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-3077-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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