A lightweight but kind-hearted guide full of cheery and self-affirming advice for young girls. In a conversational text that is full of asides and funny musings, Harlan offers advice and questions. ``Could she be your hero?'' appears in a box, followed by a paragraph on a specific woman, e.g., Julie Croteau, the first woman to play college baseball, or Donna Karan, the fashion designer. Other boxes offer little-known history, facts, and points to ponder, while there are also sensible and inspired ideas on fun, fashion, friends, and the future—``Spend time shaping your LIFE, not your body.'' A few pages ask readers to write in their thoughts on a topic, while other times statements just hang meaningfully in the air. Perhaps the most bemusing is the chapter on adults, wherein Harlan does an extended riff on the metaphor of adults as books—some are boring encyclopedias, some are how-to manuals, some are comedies, and some are poetry. There are also some great one-liners, among them, ``Teach a boy to dance'' and ``Look in a mirror. Find both of your parents in your own face.'' (b&w illustrations, index, not seen) (Nonfiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-8027-8640-5
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Walker
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1997
BOOK REVIEW
From the demon cat said to stalk the U.S. Capitol building's ``confusing tangle of...winding passageways'' to the swarming ``rats of the Rhine,'' who take terrible vengeance on a man who ordered a peasant massacre, Cohen presents an array of animals who die but refuse to rest, or appear from nowhere only to vanish mysteriously. As always, his reports are drawn from folklore (``King of the Cats''), accounts of psychic investigators, newspaper articles (the Nottingham lion, the recent Chicago kangaroo), or regional ghost story compilations; he relates them calmly, and in an evenhanded manner. Cohen doesn't include source notes; nor does he claim that everything here can be substantiated—but if readers ``happen to believe the story while...reading it, so much the better.'' (Nonfiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: June 18, 1991
ISBN: 0-399-22230-8
Page Count: 111
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1991
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Pedestrian, redundant writing and fuzzy focus undermine this effort from its first chapter (``This book is about lowland tropical moist forests...They grow in the tropics at low altitudes, as opposed to mountaintops, and are damp'') to its concluding plea for conservation (``Like a watchful lifeguard, we need to be aware that the rain forests are in trouble and heed their urgent cries for help''). There is a fair amount of information here, and some excellent recommendations, but this important topic deserves better organization and editing. Most of the photos are small and dark. A good book about efforts to save the rain forests is still urgently needed; meanwhile, this helps fill the gap. Glossary; further reading; list of organizations; index. (Nonfiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: April 30, 1991
ISBN: 0-689-31487-6
Page Count: 118
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1991
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