With delightful illustrations, this is a calming way to inspire timid children to realize exciting dreams.
As a child, the world seems very dangerous for young Jill. How does her imagination lead her to become an underwater explorer?
In the spirit of girl power, this title reflects on the rare life of a female cave diver and underwater photographer. Aquanaut and author Heinerth looks back at the childhood memories that shaped her career. The pages alternate between depictions of the round little girl and the adult diver in parallel situations. The young White girl, with brown bangs held back by a red bandana, gives a hand to someone who fell off a bike. The accompanying first-person narration states that little Jill “wanted to help others.” A turn of the page shows the grown-up diver releasing a trapped turtle from entanglement in a net. With double-page spreads brimming with color and cheer, the illustrations tie the motivations of a timid child to the underwater fulfillment of the adult. Moving back and forth in time, the narrative describes how the little girl strove to conquer her fears. Her success as an adult proves that she did. While the illustrations entertain, however, the text examples are a little ho-hum, ceding to the illustrations the task of conveying the magic of cave diving. Luckily, the author’s note helps to mitigate that, and accompanying photographs pack some punch. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10.25-by-19-inch double-page spreads viewed at 13.5% of actual size.)
With delightful illustrations, this is a calming way to inspire timid children to realize exciting dreams. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7352-6363-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
A fascinating historical character is presented in terms easy for young children to appreciate, and requests to experiment...
One of America’s most famous 20th-century immigrants, Joyce Chen, gained notoriety the hard way.
Brought up in pre-revolutionary China, Chen left Shanghai with her husband and two children in 1949 to immigrate to the U.S., where she settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Lively cartoonish pastel-and-crayon illustrations and rhyming couplets show how young Jia (later renamed Joyce) learned to cook with a man the text simply calls Cook, possibly a family servant, mastering the traditional art of making dumplings, noodles, and sweet rice balls. At the dragon boat festival, she proudly presents her father with her own creation, zongzi rice packages tightly tied “with five bright strings.” Once in the U.S., Joyce and her children face the challenge of life in America: “New words to learn. Strange food to try.” Chen becomes a mentor to other Chinese immigrants and is soon inspired to open a restaurant. The restaurant is immediately popular, but her dumplings aren’t. She overcomes the perception of Chinese food as “gluey stew” by rebranding her dumplings as “Peking Ravioli.” A cookbook and a TV show soon follow, and she has successfully introduced authentic Chinese cuisine to the East Coast. A timeline, glossary, bibliography, and dumpling recipes are included.
A fascinating historical character is presented in terms easy for young children to appreciate, and requests to experiment with dumpling dough will certainly ensue. (Picture book/biography. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-6707-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An excellent biography that will inspire young readers, especially girls, to do what they love
A picture-book biography of a humble genius who excelled in a career once out of reach for most African-Americans.
The 2016 film Hidden Figures tells the story of three black women who began working as human computers in the early 1950s for the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, which later became NASA. This book focuses on the life of one of those women, Katherine Johnson. From an early age, Katherine loved numbers and counted everything. Skipping three grades in school, Katherine was ready for high school at age 10, but her hometown in West Virginia allowed only white students to attend the high school. Her family moved to Institute, West Virginia, to enable Katherine to attend a black high school—from which she graduated at 14. Becker emphasizes Katherine’s tenacity, competence, creativity, and intellectual curiosity as she gains the trust of the astronauts whose safety and success depended on the work of the human computers. Phumiruk’s stylistically varied, colorful illustrations feature mathematical computations and notes in the backgrounds, emphasizing Katherine’s passion for numbers. Becker makes good use of the title, playing on different forms of the word “count” throughout the story, as when Katherine says, “Count on me” to calculate the Apollo’s flight paths.
An excellent biography that will inspire young readers, especially girls, to do what they love . (Picture book/biography. 5-8)Pub Date: June 19, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-13752-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2018
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