The visual element gives this memoir particular immediacy for audiences who “don’t understand what is happening right now,...
An ex–child soldier tells his horrifying tale, beginning with being kidnapped at the age of 5 and forced to kill his best friend.
Graphic in format but not detail, co-author Chikwanine’s narrative begins with his arrival in Canada, then flashes back to the early 1990s and happy childhood days in the Democratic Republic of Congo. These quickly end in terror as a ragged band of militia snatch him up with schoolmates, blindfold him, put a gun in his hands, and cajole him into pulling the trigger. “Your family will never take you back now. We are your only family.” He escapes and discovers otherwise, but the trauma stays with him through flight to a refugee camp in Uganda and immigration to a strange, snowy country. In her large, paneled illustrations Dávila steers clear of explicit violence, using facial expressions to convey vividly the rebels’ brutality, the shock of their child captives, and the narrator’s emotional scars. His initial impression that North America’s young people seem preoccupied by trivial concerns ultimately broadens into a hopeful note as he goes on to become a speaker and activist. Further information about his work, plus a Q-and-A about child soldiers worldwide and annotated lists of organizations and other resources close this affecting but not strident call to action.
The visual element gives this memoir particular immediacy for audiences who “don’t understand what is happening right now, to kids just like them.” (Graphic memoir. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-77138-126-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: April 28, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
“I’ll see you on the other side,” Hades leers—“sooner or later.” At least the terra won’t be completely incognita.
A tour of the ancient Greek (and Roman) underworld, squired by Hades and his lovely wife, Persephone.
Enthusiastically embracing his assigned role, Hades invites young visitors to pick an entrance to his shadowy realm (“There’s one right outside your bedroom.” Bwa ha ha) and to mind the monsters. The tour proceeds past Acheron and other rivers to the “fire pits of Tartaros” and the Fields of Asphodel and Elysium. Besides complaining continually that he gets no respect and fulminating about “brute-brat-boy” Herakles, the chatty chaperon delivers background on the origins of his mythological clan. He also introduces his fiendish staff and discourses on a range of need-to-know topics from Roman curse tablets to the mysterious significance of beans in ancient writings. Midway through, Persephone commandeers the narrative to tell some favorite myths—notably the one about how Theseus left part of his butt attached to the Hadean Chair of Forgetfulness. Hades ultimately leaves readers to find their own ways back to the land of the living with a generous bibliography as well as a glossary and a guide to the gods as mementos of their junket. Larson’s mannered, Aubrey Beardsley–style pen-and-ink scenes of angular figures shrouded in long cloaks or gowns add more chills than chuckles, but the map is helpful.
“I’ll see you on the other side,” Hades leers—“sooner or later.” At least the terra won’t be completely incognita. (index) (Mythology. 10-13)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-62091-598-1
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
An informative, engrossing biography about a clever, determined woman who, at the beginnings of photography, made the art...
This handsomely designed and illustrated biography introduces readers to the groundbreaking Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron.
The plain and short Julia Margaret was the odd one out in a family whose girls were known as “the beautiful Miss Pattles.” Rubin engagingly chronicles Cameron’s life from her privileged childhood in the cities of Calcutta and Versailles to her role in bohemian salons in England, whose luminaries, such as Charles Darwin and Alfred, Lord Tennyson, would later pose for her portraits. A ruthlessly meticulous, obsessive perfectionist, the commanding and eccentric photographer persuaded children and friends to dress up and hold still for the long sittings needed to stage scenes based on literature and myth. Rubin, author of many books about visual artists, clearly and concisely explains Cameron’s aesthetic sensibilities. In addition to the more than a dozen period photographs, including several by Cameron, are elegant illustrations by Ibatoulline emulating the pre-Raphaelite style of the time.
An informative, engrossing biography about a clever, determined woman who, at the beginnings of photography, made the art form uniquely her own. (source notes, bibliography, museum directory, index) (Biography. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5753-6
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014
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