Young readers intrigued by the brief encounter with Slocum, the first man to sail solo around the world, in Robert J. Blake’s Spray (1996) will welcome this expanded look at the life of one of the Age of Sail’s last great seamen. A full captain by the age of 25, Slocum sailed many ships, raised his family on some of them, undertook his epic voyage on a 36-foot sloop he rebuilt himself, and ultimately disappeared at sea. Drawing from Slocum’s memoirs, still in print after more than a century, Lasky (Starring Lucille, see below, etc.) focuses on storms, shipwrecks, mutinies, exotic ports of call—and also his doughty wife Virginia, whose facility with a revolver came in handy more than once. The salt breeze seems to flow from Krudop’s (My Great-Grandmother’s Gourd, 2000, etc.) impressionistic, thickly brushed scenes of tall ships and ramrod straight figures in 19th-century dress. Lasky, a veteran sailor herself, sends children on a voyage they won’t soon forget, with a man for whom land never meant “home.” (Biography. 10-13)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-439-29305-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2001
Wheeler offers a scrapbook-style travelogue of her seven-month stint on the world’s coldest continent. Letters to her...
In an eye-opening companion to such works as Jennifer Armstrong’s Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World (1999) and Elizabeth Cody Kimmel’s Ice Story (p. 66) on Shackleton, readers get a contemporary look at Antarctica.
Wheeler offers a scrapbook-style travelogue of her seven-month stint on the world’s coldest continent. Letters to her godson, Daniel, describe a harsh environment so cold that dental fillings fall out. Double-page spreads dotted with full-color snapshots form short chapters on the icy region, suiting up, the difficulties of everyday existence, food and drink, shelter, transportation, entertainment, and wildlife. The last third of the volume is devoted to current scientific pursuits as well as an overview of famous expeditions to the nearly uninhabitable “bottom of the planet.” The cheery photographs – most by the author – show her dwarfed by the Barne glacier, posing with Emperor penguins, even building an igloo. While the chatty letters highlight personal details of the trip, boxed inserts provide background information. Key dates in Antarctic history complete this accessible profile, ideal as entry into units on the region. (maps, charts, diagrams, further reading, index) (Nonfiction. 8-12)Pub Date: July 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-87226-295-2
Page Count: 44
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1999
To the true story of Mary Anning, a pre-Darwin fossil hunter who made a major discovery at the age of 11, Anholt adds a folklorish spin. Derided by other children and set apart by surviving a bolt of lightning, Mary assembles such an impressive collection of “snakestones” and “curiosities” from the clay cliffs around her Dorset village that two female scientists take her under their wings. Later, after the death of her father, known as “Pepper” for his speckled beard, she meets a similarly speckled dog, who becomes her constant companion and, before disappearing, leads her to a giant, spectacular marine fossil. Tumbling cottages and spectral dinosaurs across a crumpled landscape, combining swirls of vivid color with disparate perspectives, Moxley creates a hectic, feverish visual rhythm for the tale, but anchors her scenes with Mary’s small, solid figure, in no-nonsense braids and brown shift. A tale that is frequently, and more conventionally, told elsewhere, it lends itself well to such an atmospheric, crackling rendition. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-531-30148-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999
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