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MARGARET MEAD

Name: MARGARET MEAD
Author: Joan Mark
ISBN: 0-19-511679-8

COMING OF AGE IN AMERICA

by Joan Mark ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1999

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Mead’s remarkable 50 years of work in the field of anthropology are retold in this inspiring biography in the Oxford Portraits in Science series. Readers are transported to Samoa to understand Mead’s fieldwork with Samoan adolescents, entertained with tales about the Manus children in the Admiralty Islands, introduced to the exotic ceremonial life of the Balinese, and returned to the US for Mead’s critical assessments of American life written during WWII. Most importantly, however, Mark leaves readers a reminder of Mead’s conviction that we must not judge so-called “primitive” cultures against our own, but as separate cultures worthy of understanding and respect. This study of Margaret Mead’s life is critical to current social dialogue on how to promote tolerance and eliminate stereotypes between the races and sexes; perhaps Mark’s work, already a great introduction to Mead’s own writings, will become required reading for America’s youth. (photos, chronology, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 11-16)

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-19-511679-8

Page Count: 110

Publisher: Oxford Univ.

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1998

Categories:

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR

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WRITE A BOOK FOR ME

THE STORY OF MARGUERITE HENRY

by David R. Collins ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 10, 1999

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Marguerite Henry died barely two years ago, after living the life of which most writers dream: She wrote from the time she was young, her parents encouraged her, she published early and often, and her books were honored and loved in her lifetime. Her hobby, she said, was words, but it was also her life and livelihood. Her research skills were honed by working in her local library, doing book repair. Her husband Sidney supported and encouraged her work, and they traveled widely as she carefully researched the horses on Chincoteague and the burros in the Grand Canyon. She worked in great harmony with her usual illustrator, Wesley Dennis, and was writing up until she died. Collins is a bit overwrought in his prose, but Henry comes across as strong and engaging as she must have been in person. Researchers will be delighted to find her Newbery acceptance speech included in its entirety. (b&w photos, bibliography, index) (Biography. 9-12)

Pub Date: March 10, 1999

ISBN: 1-883846-39-0

Page Count: 112

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1999

Categories:

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT ANIMALS | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT HISTORY

- BOOK REVIEW
SHATTERED DREAMS
by David R. Collins

- BOOK REVIEW
J.R.R. TOLKIEN
by David R. Collins & illustrated by William Heagy

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WILD HEART

THE STORY OF JOY ADAMSON, AUTHOR OF BORN FREE

by Anne E. Neimark ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1999

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. Adamson is revered as one of the pioneers of the endangered animal movement; Neimark, though capturing much of Adamson’s milieu and the events of her life, paints her as a talented, but impulsive, moody woman. Growing up in Austria between world wars, Adamson trained as a pianist and as an artist. At 18, while attending a ball, she is carried off by a masked “apache” who declares, “You are mine.” The author burbles: “She felt the strength of his arms and the gritty warmth of his body.” That’s only one instance where the lack of source notes is keenly felt; readers will have to digest some astonishing information unaided. Although her romantic interlude lasts two years, her lover’s identity remains concealed (readers will have to suppose that she knew who he was, even if they don’t); Adamson, pregnant and abandoned, has an abortion, becomes a patient of Sigmund Freud, marries twice, and has two miscarriages before meeting her third husband, George Adamson, a gamekeeper in Kenya, who brings home three orphaned lion cubs. The many anecdotes comprising this biography are interesting, but without citations, leave readers unsettled; what is the possible source for Adamson’s dramatic death scene following a confrontation with a disgruntled ex-employee? “Blood seeped from her, but she felt no regrets. She had always chosen risk over safety. She would not, even now, be victim to fear.” (bibliography, index) (Biography. 12-14)