Lange uses recent research, including findings at the archeological project called Jamestown Rediscovery, to argue that disease and drought were a large part of the community’s collapse, and that the new arrivals and native populations weren’t as consistently at odds as is usually supposed. This in contrast to the conventional view, expressed most recently in Susan and William H. Harkins’s Jamestown, the First English Colony (2006), that the 400-year-old settlement’s early troubles (in the first 25 years, fully two-thirds of its residents died) were caused by the colonists’ general ineptitude and lack of preparation. Illustrated with color photos of artifacts and of costumed re-enactors, this broad overview of the colony’s first few decades—in particular its relationship with indigenous groups—makes a valuable lead-in to the likes of Sandy Pobst’s more detail-oriented Virginia, 1607-1776 (2005). (multimedia resource lists) (Nonfiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: Feb. 13, 2007
ISBN: 1-4263-0012-3
Page Count: 48
Publisher: National Geographic
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2007
Categories: CHILDREN'S HISTORY
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A custom-built, bulletproof limo links two historical figures who were pre-eminent in more or less different spheres.
Garland admits that a claim that FDR was driven to Congress to deliver his “Day of Infamy” speech in a car that once belonged to Capone rests on shaky evidence. He nonetheless uses the anecdote as a launchpad for twin portraits of contemporaries who occupy unique niches in this country’s history but had little in common. Both were smart, ambitious New Yorkers and were young when their fathers died, but they definitely “headed in opposite directions.” As he fills his biographical sketches with standard-issue facts and has disappointingly little to say about the car itself (which was commissioned by Capone in 1928 and still survives), this outing seems largely intended to be a vehicle for the dark, heavy illustrations. These are done in muted hues with densely scratched surfaces and angled so that the two men, the period backgrounds against which they are posed, and the car have monumental looks. It’s a reach to bill this, as the author does, a “story about America,” but it does at least offer a study in contrasts featuring two of America’s most renowned citizens. Most of the human figures are white in the art, but some group scenes include a few with darker skin.
The car gets shortchanged, but comparing the divergent career paths of its (putative) two riders may give readers food for thought. (timeline, bibliography) (Picture book/biography. 10-12)Pub Date: March 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-88448-620-6
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Tilbury House
Review Posted Online: Jan. 15, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
Categories: CHILDREN'S BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | CHILDREN'S HISTORY
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This liberally illustrated survival tale makes reading as compelling as any of the recent accounts of Ernest Shackleton’s contemporaneous ventures. Unlike Shackleton, Australian geologist Mawson mounted his ill-starred expedition for (mostly) scientific purposes. Having set up base camp at Cape Denison, soon discovered to be “the windiest place in the world,” Mawson departed with a small party on sledges in November 1912. He returned alone and on foot the following February, having lost nearly all supplies, and both human companions (one, Bredeson hints, to vitamin-A poisoning from a forced diet of sled-dog livers), but surviving a 320-mile trek back. Supplemented by expedition photos of dim, windswept landscapes, and laced with horrifying details—at one point Mawson takes off his socks, and his soles peel off with them—this lesser-known, tragic episode from the golden age of Antarctic exploration won’t fail to give readers both chills and thrills. (roster, time line, resource lists, index) (Nonfiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-7922-6140-2
Page Count: 64
Publisher: National Geographic
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2003
Categories: CHILDREN'S HISTORY
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