Young people with entrepreneurial ambitions will find Walton’s life inspiring, instructive and, perhaps, cautionary.
When he died in 1992, Sam Walton left behind a multibillion-dollar retail empire that today comprises over 9,000 stores in 15 countries; Blumenthal chronicles Walton’s remarkable rise from humble beginnings to becoming the founder of Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer.
Walton’s childhood was not wholly the stuff of Horatio Alger stories. His family managed to scrape by through the worst of economic times. Young Sam earned extra money selling magazine subscriptions, delivering newspapers and raising pigeons and rabbits. Walton learned about retail by working for J.C. Penney and managing a Ben Franklin 5-and-10 before establishing his first store in 1962. By 1989, Walton had over 1,500 stores, grossing $26 billion in sales. What will most surprise readers is Walton’s lack of interest in money, which he called “just paper.” Even after becoming a billionaire, Walton maintained a frugal lifestyle. Beating the competition always mattered most to him, a goal he ruthlessly pursued. Making the life of a man who devoted nearly every moment of his adult life to expanding his company an interesting story could be tough, but Blumenthal succeeds in bringing Walton’s driven personality and obsession with winning to life. (The author addresses the mostly posthumous controversies surrounding Wal-Mart in an epilogue.)
Young people with entrepreneurial ambitions will find Walton’s life inspiring, instructive and, perhaps, cautionary. (notes, bibliography) (Biography. 10-14)Pub Date: July 7, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-670-01177-3
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2011
A breezy, bustling bucketful of courageous acts and eye-popping feats.
Why should grown-ups get all the historical, scientific, athletic, cinematic, and artistic glory?
Choosing exemplars from both past and present, Mitchell includes but goes well beyond Alexander the Great, Anne Frank, and like usual suspects to introduce a host of lesser-known luminaries. These include Shapur II, who was formally crowned king of Persia before he was born, Indian dancer/professional architect Sheila Sri Prakash, transgender spokesperson Jazz Jennings, inventor Param Jaggi, and an international host of other teen or preteen activists and prodigies. The individual portraits range from one paragraph to several pages in length, and they are interspersed with group tributes to, for instance, the Nazi-resisting “Swingkinder,” the striking New York City newsboys, and the marchers of the Birmingham Children’s Crusade. Mitchell even offers would-be villains a role model in Elagabalus, “boy emperor of Rome,” though she notes that he, at least, came to an awful end: “Then, then! They dumped his remains in the Tiber River, to be nommed by fish for all eternity.” The entries are arranged in no evident order, and though the backmatter includes multiple booklists, a personality quiz, a glossary, and even a quick Braille primer (with Braille jokes to decode), there is no index. Still, for readers whose fires need lighting, there’s motivational kindling on nearly every page.
A breezy, bustling bucketful of courageous acts and eye-popping feats. (finished illustrations not seen) (Collective biography. 10-13)Pub Date: May 10, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-14-751813-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Puffin
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2015
A tragic, gripping, and inspiring story.
In 1979, 11-year-old Norman was the only survivor of a plane crash in Southern California: This is his true story.
This book for middle-grade readers, co-authored with Kiely, covers much of the same material as Ollestad’s 2009 memoir for adults, Crazy for the Storm. Flying in a four-seater Cessna with his father, his father’s girlfriend, Sandra, and the pilot, Norman was excited to reach Big Bear to receive his ski-racing trophy. (As a vivid example of his busy childhood, they’d driven the 300 miles there yesterday for Norman to compete—and then driven back to Topanga Canyon in the evening for his hockey game.) But the plane tragically crashed on a mountain in a blizzard. Nothing is sugarcoated; readers encounter graphic descriptions of the pilot and Norman’s dad, who died, and Sandra, who suffered a gaping head wound. Eventually accepting that he had to figure things out on his own, Norman drew upon the extreme training his father had put his “Boy Wonder” through—training that had bullied Norman into facing difficult physical and mental challenges that he feared and resented. During his trek to safety, Norman performed incredible mental and physical feats and encouraged the barely functioning Sandra—until she fell to her death. Norman’s conflicted feelings about the father he’d both idolized and resented are nuanced and satisfyingly resolved. Readers who enjoy nail-biting wilderness stories will be riveted.
A tragic, gripping, and inspiring story. (Nonfiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9780374392611
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
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