Doesn’t take flight.
A story in verse of trailblazer Bessie Coleman, the first African American woman to earn a pilot’s license.
After learning about Harriet Quimby, a White woman who became the first American woman to earn a pilot’s license, young Coleman began to think that flying could be for her. A few years later, after moving to Chicago, she learned from her brother that women in France were pilots during “the war” (that this was World War I is never communicated). Inspired, Coleman tried in vain to find a teacher in the United States; undaunted, she moved to France, where she finally learned to fly before returning to the United States to inspire the nation. Coleman is a fascinating subject, but missing biographical detail and undocumented conversations do not suit this effort for the nonfiction shelves. Though the backmatter includes information about women in flight as well as notes from the author and illustrator, there is not enough information presented about Coleman’s life to answer the questions readers will have after finishing this book. Parsons’ verse is, sadly, too often simplistic and strained: “One day, Bessie’s teacher / Told them of how / A woman had become a pilot! / A huge breakthrough! Wow!” Christie’s characteristically powerful illustrations cannot mitigate the text’s weaknesses (though his note does inform those who read it that Coleman grew up in Texas, another fact Parsons leaves unsaid).
Doesn’t take flight. (timeline, photographs) (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-316-45719-4
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2020
A historically specific setting with an eternal lesson.
A child’s special treat is given to a man in need, setting off a chain reaction of kindness.
It is a regular day on Tai Yuen Street in Hong Kong, full of “beeping, bickering, and bartering,” as a child’s parents set up their hawker stand. Suddenly, the usual bustle is interrupted by a THWUMP! as a man who has traveled “a thousand miles” by foot and boat to cross the border into Hong Kong falls to his knees. Bystanders turn away, “uninterested in hearing their own stories retold to them.” However, the protagonist’s mother hears the grumbles of the man’s stomach, and her kids watch horror-struck as she pulls out the special mooncake they were saving—the kind with the double-yolk center (“the best kind!”)—and asks the narrator to bring it to the hungry man. It takes two pages to slowly and sadly walk the treat over and only one gulp for the man to devour the entire cake. However, this single act of kindness unleashes a torrent of generosity from the nearby hawkers. Sepia and cool colors give this tale a historical feel, while delicate cartoon renderings of the bustling market street and crowds of people lighten the tone. In the backmatter, AuYeung notes that this story was based on an incident from her childhood, explains the historical significance of the refugee’s flight to Hong Kong, and shares family photos. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A historically specific setting with an eternal lesson. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-64567-556-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Page Street
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
This reimagined telling has an engaging charm that rings true.
An imagining of an unlikely real-life episode in the life of absurdist Franz Kafka.
Theule follows the outline of the account: When Kafka meets an unhappy girl in a Berlin park in 1923 and learns her doll is lost, Kafka writes a series of letters from Soupsy, the doll, to Irma, the girl. The real letters and the girl’s identity have been lost to history; the invented letters describe a dazzling variety of adventures for Soupsy. Unfortunately, as the letters increase in excitement, Kafka’s health declines (he would die of tuberculosis in June 1924), and he must find a way to end Soupsy’s adventures in a positive way. In an author’s note, readers learn that Kafka chose to write that Soupsy was getting married. Theule instead opts to send the doll on an Antarctic expedition. Irma gets the message that she can do anything, and the final image shows her riding a camel, a copy of Metamorphosis peeking from a satchel. While kids may not care about Kafka, the short relationship between the writer and the little girl will keep their interest. Realizing that an adult can care so much about a child met in the park is empowering. The stylized illustrations, especially those set in the chilly Berlin fall, resemble woodcuts with a German expressionist look. The doll’s adventures look a little sweeter, with more red and blue added to the brown palette of the German scenes. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10.5-by-17-inch double-page spreads viewed at 23% of actual size.)
This reimagined telling has an engaging charm that rings true. (biographical note, bibliography) (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: March 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-11632-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021
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