by Joseph Coelho ; illustrated by Kate Milner ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2017
It may take readers a few rounds to fully appreciate and understand the loose, unassumingly sophisticated narrative that...
This slim volume of more than four dozen poems of varying lengths charts the narrator’s course from childhood in low-income urban housing to adolescence to young adulthood and fatherhood.
The unnamed narrator personifies the unforgiving public-housing tower block as a “zombie” hungry for human lives and memories. He dodges a bully in “Smashing Snails in the Rain” and overhears an “Argument”: “The monster / With a roar made up of shouts,” whose “jaws snap / Like slamming doors” and whose “claws clatter / Like kitchen drawers.” His father gives him the perfect pair of red sneakers in “Trainers.” These shoes return many times across the collection, acting as a possible symbol of the boy’s hero worship of his often absent father. As the boy enters his teens, he goes from confident to awkward to embracing the changes his body experiences in “Man…I Had It Made.” In later poems, he has his first kiss, gets exam results, and leaves home for the first time. He becomes a father, “whose heart thumps solely for his / daughter.” Poetic forms vary, with some rhyming and others not. Readers may have difficulty understanding the trilogy of sophisticated poems based on the myth of Prometheus. Race is not mentioned, and the flat, unemotional black-and-white sketches provide few clues.
It may take readers a few rounds to fully appreciate and understand the loose, unassumingly sophisticated narrative that joins the poems. (Poetry. 10-13)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-91095-958-9
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Otter-Barry
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
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by Jan Paul Schutten ; translated by Ilse Craane ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 7, 2014
Readers who want to know when their jet packs and food tablets will be coming will find no answers in this mishmash of...
A Belgian import attempts prognostication.
Schutten opens and closes with the dead-cinch prediction that readers in 2030 will laugh at his views on where household tech, sustainable land and water use, medicine and robotics are heading in the near future. In between, he delivers debatable prophecies that microwave ovens will be superseded by unspecified new devices, that computer games will replace most toys and like airy claims. These are embedded in equally superficial surveys of the pros and cons of fossil and alternative energy sources, as well as cautionary looks at environmentally damaging agricultural and lifestyle practices that are in at least the early stages of being addressed. Conversely, he is blindly optimistic about the wonders of “superfoods,” carrying surveillance chips in our bodies and supersmart robots managing our lives. Uncaptioned photos and graphics add lots of color but little content. A closing section of provocative questions, plus endnotes citing news stories, blog posts and other sources of more detailed information, may give would-be futurologists some reward for slogging their ways through.
Readers who want to know when their jet packs and food tablets will be coming will find no answers in this mishmash of eco-sermons and vague allusions to cutting-edge technology. (index) (Nonfiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-58270-474-6
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Beyond Words/Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2014
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by Jan Paul Schutten ; translated by Laura Watkinson ; photographed by Arie van ’t Riet
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by Jan Paul Schutten ; illustrated by Floor Rieder ; translated by Laura Watkinson
by Kwame Alexander ; photographed by Thai Neave ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 14, 2017
This will appeal to fans of Alexander’s previous middle-grade novels as well as young sports fans.
Building on the great success of his Newbery-winning The Crossover (2014), Alexander provides advice and life lessons to young readers, drawn mostly from the world of sports and organized by a schema of “rules.”
Instead of chapters, the work begins with a preface called “Warm-up: The Rules” and is then divided into the four quarters of a game, each having a theme: “grit,” “motivation,” “focus,” and “teamwork and resilience.” “Passion” is included as a half-time consideration, and there is an “overtime” look at Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. There are brief profiles of athletes Wilma Rudolph, LeBron James, Pelé, and Venus and Serena Williams, along with maxims and personal anecdotes from both male and female sports figures who’ve excelled in different arenas as well as a few nonathletes, including Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni, Sonya Sotomayor, and Nelson Mandela. Throughout there is poetry, verses that remind us why Alexander connects with readers. “Rule #45 / A loss is inevitable / like rain in spring. / True champions / learn / to dance / through / the storm.” The advice never feels heavy-handed, and the author's voice shines through. The design is as much a part of the book as its lively text, set in varying font sizes and colors (black, white, or orange), differing layouts, and judicious use of photographs and illustrations.
This will appeal to fans of Alexander’s previous middle-grade novels as well as young sports fans. (Nonfiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-544-57097-9
Page Count: 176
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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by Kwame Alexander & Deanna Nikaido ; illustrated by Melissa Sweet
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