by Lauarence Luckinbill ; adapted by Eryck Tait ; illustrated by Eryck Tait ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 17, 2021
It’s not physically nuanced, but it’s a vivid picture of Teddy at his most admirable…and prescient.
Teddy Roosevelt roars, fumes, and looks back on his life and family in this graphic version of Luckinbill’s one-man stage show Teddy Tonight.
Though the background dissolves at need into various historical scenes, it’s the performance that Tait portrays here, depicting in his black, white, and slate-blue panels a Roosevelt who looks like Luckinbill in makeup and returning frequently to facial close-ups and a simple stage setting with a podium, a few items of furniture, and a teddy bear. Threaded with direct quotes, the monologue mixes biographical reminiscences both tragic and fond with furious (and cogent!) fulminations about the inability of Woodrow Wilson and other World War I–era “flubdubs” to accept the futility of trying to reason with those who only respect force. It is left largely intact—with edits that serve to lend TR’s environmental vision and his liberal views on civil and human rights a (largely if not entirely deserved) glossy sheen. The legendary force of his personality is more clearly evoked in the live show, which is available online for free, but readers will still hear echoes of it here. Along with a coherent overview of TR’s accomplishments, they will come away with a clear picture of his character as one for whom father, family, and a profound desire to live a “worthwhile” life were the chief values.
It’s not physically nuanced, but it’s a vivid picture of Teddy at his most admirable…and prescient. (Graphic biography. 11-14)Pub Date: Feb. 17, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-68247-487-7
Page Count: 168
Publisher: Dead Reckoning/Naval Institute Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
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by Joan Dash ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2001
Born in 1880 in a tiny backwater in Alabama, Helen Keller lived a life familiar to many from the play and movie The Miracle Worker, as well as countless biographies. There’s no denying the drama in the story of the deaf and blind child for whom the world of language became possible through a dedicated and fanatically stubborn teacher, Annie Sullivan. But Helen’s life after that is even more remarkable: she went to high school and then to Radcliffe; she was a radical political thinker and a member of the Wobblies; she supported herself by lecture tours and vaudeville excursions as well as through the kindness of many. Dash (The Longitude Prize, p. 1483) does a clear-sighted and absorbing job of examining Annie’s prickly personality and the tender family that she, Helen, and Annie’s husband John Macy formed. She touches on the family pressures that conspired to keep Helen from her own pursuit of love and marriage; she makes vivid not only Helen’s brilliant and vibrant intelligence and personality, but the support of many people who loved her, cared for her, and served her. She also does not shrink from the describing the social and class divisions that kept some from crediting Annie Sullivan and others intent on making Helen into a puppet and no more. Riveting reading for students in need of inspiration, or who’re overcoming disability or studying changing expectations for women. (Biography. 10-14)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-590-90715-8
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2000
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by Dwight Jon Zimmerman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2010
More a historical narrative than a character portrait, this account of Tecumseh’s efforts to create a tribal confederacy in the Old Northwest focuses on the great Shawnee leader’s many battles and negotiations with then–Territorial Governor William Henry Harrison and then his disastrous—ultimately fatal—alliance with the British during the War of 1812. Replete with side essays on such varied subtopics as the Northwest Territory, the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-12 and the Battle of Lake Erie, it also boasts often–full-color illustrations from archival sources (many of these later paintings and old prints that are inaccurate, as the discursive captions often rightly note, and sometimes too small to make out anyway). In all, this will provide students a coherent view of events if not a clear understanding of Shawnee culture or Tecumseh’s heroic personal qualities. If it's not the 100-page holy grail of middle-grade biographies, it is still pretty close. (glossary, bibliography, source notes, index) (Biography. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4027-6847-7
Page Count: 124
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: Dec. 29, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2010
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