by Jonah Winter & illustrated by Jeanette Winter ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2007
Using heightened language that matches his mother’s exquisite, hieratic pictures, Jonah Winter limns the life of an extraordinary woman, the 12th-century Hildegard of Bingen. As a small girl, Hildegard knew things and could see things inside her head, visions and glories. Her frightened parents brought her to a monastery where a particular nun taught her to read, to sing and to study. Keeping her visions secret, however, caused her great pain, until she let them pour out of her in a luminous river of music, writing and natural history. The pope blessed her work, and people came to hear her. The design is in perfect harmony with the story, with pages that alternate long and shorter texts, and fonts reflecting her own words or those of the narrator. Hildegard described herself as “a feather on the breath of God,” and young readers will find themselves breathless with the power of her story and the long reach of her ideas. (author’s note, bibliography) (Biography. 7-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-439-50739-4
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Levine/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2007
Share your opinion of this book
More by Jonah Winter
BOOK REVIEW
by Jonah Winter ; illustrated by Jeanette Winter
BOOK REVIEW
by Jonah Winter ; illustrated by Jeanette Winter
BOOK REVIEW
by Jonah Winter ; illustrated by Bob Staake
by Jacqueline Woodson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 28, 2014
For every dreaming girl (and boy) with a pencil in hand (or keyboard) and a story to share. (Memoir/poetry. 8-12)
Awards & Accolades
Our Verdict
GET IT
Google Rating
Kirkus Reviews'
Best Books Of 2014
New York Times Bestseller
Newbery Honor Book
National Book Award Winner
Coretta Scott King Book Award Winner
A multiaward–winning author recalls her childhood and the joy of becoming a writer.
Writing in free verse, Woodson starts with her 1963 birth in Ohio during the civil rights movement, when America is “a country caught / / between Black and White.” But while evoking names such as Malcolm, Martin, James, Rosa and Ruby, her story is also one of family: her father’s people in Ohio and her mother’s people in South Carolina. Moving south to live with her maternal grandmother, she is in a world of sweet peas and collards, getting her hair straightened and avoiding segregated stores with her grandmother. As the writer inside slowly grows, she listens to family stories and fills her days and evenings as a Jehovah’s Witness, activities that continue after a move to Brooklyn to reunite with her mother. The gift of a composition notebook, the experience of reading John Steptoe’s Stevie and Langston Hughes’ poetry, and seeing letters turn into words and words into thoughts all reinforce her conviction that “[W]ords are my brilliance.” Woodson cherishes her memories and shares them with a graceful lyricism; her lovingly wrought vignettes of country and city streets will linger long after the page is turned.
For every dreaming girl (and boy) with a pencil in hand (or keyboard) and a story to share. (Memoir/poetry. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-399-25251-8
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
Share your opinion of this book
More by Jacqueline Woodson
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
by Jacqueline Woodson ; illustrated by Leo Espinosa
BOOK REVIEW
by Jacqueline Woodson ; illustrated by Rafael López
More About This Book
SEEN & HEARD
by April Jones Prince & illustrated by François Roca ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 26, 2005
Strong rhythms and occasional full or partial rhymes give this account of P.T. Barnum’s 1884 elephant parade across the newly opened Brooklyn Bridge an incantatory tone. Catching a whiff of public concern about the new bridge’s sturdiness, Barnum seizes the moment: “’I will stage an event / that will calm every fear, erase every worry, / about that remarkable bridge. / My display will amuse, inform / and astound some. / Or else my name isn’t Barnum!’” Using a rich palette of glowing golds and browns, Roca imbues the pachyderms with a calm solidity, sending them ambling past equally solid-looking buildings and over a truly monumental bridge—which soars over a striped Big Top tent in the final scene. A stately rendition of the episode, less exuberant, but also less fictionalized, than Phil Bildner’s Twenty-One Elephants (2004), illustrated by LeUyen Pham. (author’s note, resource list) (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2005
ISBN: 0-618-44887-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2005
Share your opinion of this book
More by April Jones Prince
BOOK REVIEW
by April Jones Prince ; illustrated by Christine Davenier
BOOK REVIEW
by April Jones Prince ; illustrated by Christine Davenier
BOOK REVIEW
by April Jones Prince ; illustrated by Bob Kolar
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.