While this historic roll call is impressively diverse, toddlers are highly unlikely to grasp the importance of these female...
Florence Nightingale, Rosa Parks, and Maria Tallchief are some of the icons introduced in this “Girl Power Primer.”
On the book’s first two pages, these and seven other women and girls (elementary school student Ruby Bridges and teen Malala Yousafzai are in the mix) appear in a group shot on a flowery field against a pink sky. Holub’s couplets, which range from passable to clunky, appear on the versos of the next 10 double-page spreads accompanied by a small portrait of the featured trailblazer. On each recto, there is a full-page image of the subject in action with a small one- or two-sentence caption with additional details. Roode’s highly saturated illustrations, which look to have been created with CGI tools, turn each figure from history into a wide-eyed cartoon with an oversized head. Unfortunately, this cutesy and simplified style makes architect and sculptor Maya Lin look to be about 3 and Ada Lovelace appear to be opening window blinds rather than creating one of the first computer programs (although how one would represent this to very young children is a bit of a puzzle). The final two pages present 12 additional women, leaving a 13th space with a question mark labeled “You!”
While this historic roll call is impressively diverse, toddlers are highly unlikely to grasp the importance of these female pioneers from the few, short lines and the simplified and sometimes confusing images. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: Dec. 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5344-0106-8
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This book falls short of its promise.
A compendium of profiles of people of color who have changed the world.
Each page of this colorful board book contains between four and nine profiles of people of color whose activism and leadership have changed the world. The descriptive text for each leader chosen is extremely short—only one sentence long—quickly outlining each person’s background, heritage, accomplishments, and little else. Each profile is accompanied by a bobbleheadlike cartoon illustration of the leader in question, rendered with bold colors and nearly identical in their simplified facial features. The heroes chosen are diverse in terms of their race, ethnicity, gender, ability, and areas of expertise, including African American athlete and artist Ernie Barnes, Dominican fashion designer Oscar de la Renta, Kwakwaka’wakw artist Ellen Ka’kasolas Neel, and president of Ecuador Lenín Moreno, who uses a wheelchair. Although the range is impressive, it is also confusing: A few sentences of additional text sporadically appear, serving little purpose and breaking the flow, nor does there seem to be any unifying threads to the groupings. Additionally, some of the choices of heroes are questionable: Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, for example, was often criticized for engaging in corruption and doing little to further the cause of women’s rights, while “spiritual leader” Sudehanshu Biswas is hardly known even in his home country of India.
This book falls short of its promise. (Board book. 3-4)Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-32642-0
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
This Little is both too little and too early to do justice to these important lives.
A board-book introduction to 10 workers for social justice.
The first double-page spread shows the five men and five women to be featured. Subsequent spreads include a close-up portrait and four-line verse opposite an illustration meant to demonstrate each inspirational figure’s work. A two- or three-line caption reduces the complex work of people like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to vague platitudes. “Mahatma Gandhi led the people of India to freedom from being ruled by Great Britain” is woefully inadequate. Even so, the concept is still far beyond the board-book audience’s understanding. How to communicate to toddlers the work of Henry Bergh, ASPCA founder, or Dr. Jim Yong Kim, 12th chair of the World Bank? (Answer: He “works to help poor countries succeed.”) Dolores Huerta was chosen to represent the United Farm Workers, but including Cesar Chavez in her caption diminishes her role. Brief bios and portraits of 17 additional activists and a blank space labeled “You!” under the headline “Kindness, sharing, speaking out, fair play— / what could you do to help others someday?” complete the book. The bobblehead art, similar to other books in the This Little series, sometimes borders on offensive caricature.
This Little is both too little and too early to do justice to these important lives. (Board book. 2-3)Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-4291-7
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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