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SHAKER CHILDREN

Name: SHAKER CHILDREN
Author: Kathleen Thorne-Thomsen
ISBN: 1-55652-250-9

TRUE STORIES AND CRAFTS

by Kathleen Thorne-Thomsen ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1996

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Most young readers know so little about this nearly moribund Utopian community that any new book on the subject should be welcome—but not this one. The first half tells the true stories of two children who lived in Shaker communities. Of curiosity to contemporary readers is that the children don't seem very upset at being separated from their families. They adapt to Shaker ways, in an account that is little more than a superficial overview of a complex and often demanding way of life. Many terms are introduced and never really explained (e.g., needle emeries), neither in context nor in the brief glossary. The second half of the book—devoted to activities—is really problematic. Even experienced adult cooks are leery of making jam/jelly (the author uses the terms interchangeably), an activity that is downright dangerous for children. Many of the recipes are beyond the abilities of preteens, and the other activities can be quite ambitious, e.g., planting a ten-foot-square garden, often without clear instructions. Included is a bibliography of adult books; it fails to include the half-dozen titles—in print and still being read- -available for young readers, any of which provide far more solid information than this title does. (b&w photos and illustrations, bibliography) (Nonfiction. 10-12)

Pub Date: April 1, 1996

ISBN: 1-55652-250-9

Page Count: 122

Publisher: Chicago Review Press

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1996

Categories:

CHILDREN'S BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | CHILDREN'S RELIGION | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL SCIENCES

- BOOK REVIEW
A SHAKER'S DOZEN
by Kathleen Thorne-Thomsen & Paul Rocheleau

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ALL BY HERSELF

POEMS

by Ann Whitford Paul ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1999

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Prose poems celebrate the feats of young heroines, some of them famous, and some not as well-known. Paul (Hello Toes! Hello Feet!, 1998, etc.) recounts moments in the lives of women such as Rachel Carson, Amelia Earhart, and Wilma Rudolph; these moments don’t necessarily reflect what made them famous as much as they are pivotal events in their youth that influenced the direction of their lives. For Earhart, it was sliding down the roof of the tool shed in a home-made roller coaster: “It’s like flying!” For Rudolph, it was the struggle to learn to walk without her foot brace. Other women, such as Violet Sheehy, who rescued her family from a fire in Hinckley, Minnesota, or Harriet Hanson, a union supporter in the fabric mills of Massachusetts, are celebrated for their brave decisions made under extreme duress. Steirnagle’s sweeping paintings powerfully exude the strength of character exhibited by these young women. A commemorative book, that honors both quiet and noisy acts of heroism. (Picture book/poetry. 6-9)

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-15-201477-2

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S POETRY | CHILDREN'S BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR

- BOOK REVIEW
IF ANIMALS TRICK-OR-TREATED
by Ann Whitford Paul ; illustrated by David Walker

- BOOK REVIEW
WHO LOVES LITTLE LEMUR?
by Ann Whitford Paul ; illustrated by Jay Fleck

- BOOK REVIEW
IF ANIMALS GAVE THANKS
by Ann Whitford Paul ; illustrated by David Walker

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IF A BUS COULD TALK

THE STORY OF ROSA PARKS

by Faith Ringgold ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1999

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Ringgold’s biography of Rosa Parks packs substantial material into a few pages, but with a light touch, and with the ring of authenticity that gives her act of weary resistance all the respect it deserves. Narrating the book is the bus that Parks took that morning 45 years ago; it recounts the signal events in Parks’s life to a young girl who boarded it to go to school. A decent amount of the material will probably be new to children, for Parks is so intimately associated with the Montgomery Bus Boycott that her work with the NAACP before the bus incident is often overlooked, as is her later role as a community activist in Detroit with Congressman John Conyers. Ringgold, through the bus, also informs readers of Parks’s youth in rural Alabama, where Klansmen and nightriders struck fear into the lives of African-Americans. These experiences make her refusal to release her seat all the more courageous, for the consequences of resistance were not gentle. All the events are depicted in emotive naive artwork that underscores their truth; Ringgold delivers Parks’s story without hyperbole, but rather as a life lived with pride, conviction, and consequence. (Picture book/biography. 5-9)