by Lauren Tarshis ; illustrated by Scott Dawson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2013
Sentimental of plotline but informative and breathlessly paced.
The seventh (chronologically earliest) entry in the series pitches a young former slave into the middle of the Civil War’s pivotal battle.
Having saved a Union soldier named Henry Green by hurling a live skunk at his Confederate captors, young Thomas finds himself and his little sister Birdie adopted by Green’s unit. Three weeks, an ambush and a quick march later, Thomas unexpectedly finds himself in the thick of the fighting—possibly on Missionary Ridge itself, though the author doesn’t provide a specific location. Rather than go into details of the battle, Tarshis offers broad overviews of slavery and the war’s course (adding more about the latter in an afterword that includes the text of the Gettysburg Address). She folds these into quick pictures of military camp life and the violence-laced fog of war. Afterward, Thomas and Birdie are reunited with their older cousin Clem, who had been sold away, and make good on a promise to Green (who doesn’t survive) to settle with his Vermont parents and attend the school taught by his sweetheart.
Sentimental of plotline but informative and breathlessly paced. (Q&A, annotated reading list) (Historical fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-45936-5
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 25, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2013
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by Lauren Tarshis ; illustrated by Berat Pekmezci
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by Lauren Tarshis ; illustrated by Lisa Bronson Mezoff
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by Saskia Lacey ; illustrated by Sernur Işık ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2016
A natural lead-in, or better, lagniappe, to Kathleen Krull’s Lives of the Writers (1994, illustrated by Kathryn Hewitt)
From the Brontësaurus Sisters to Mark Twainceratops (“Born Samuel ‘Three-Horn’ Clemens”), a canon-expanding gallery of great writers that will have every reader, dinophile or not, roaring.
For this first in a projected series, Lacey pairs profiles of six renowned white human authors with as many mostly green but similarly named and (to younger audiences, at least) ancient creators of “dinosaur dramas, prehistoric poems, and timeless fossils of fiction.” For both sets she offers cogent comments on their lives and art—“Having invented over 1,578 grunts, growls, and snorts, Shakespeareasaurus’ talent for wordplay is unequaled”—plus, in small, attached booklets, a hilariously condensed representative work for each. “ROMEO: But soft! There squats my fairest maiden! / See how she slumps her cheek upon her claw?” Following each reptilian profile is a double-page spread that presents its corresponding human. Isik missteps in casting both Catherine and Heathcliff as theropods despite clear indications in the narrative that she’s a brontosaurus and he a velociraptor. Aside from this, her cartoon portraits of popeyed authors and characters in, mostly, antique dress add appropriate notes of anti-gravitas. Whether or not some of the riffs pass over their heads, readers will come away with a fund of names, titles, and general expectations that will serve them well in future encounters with literary works that have, or perhaps will, “echo[ed] across the millennia.”
A natural lead-in, or better, lagniappe, to Kathleen Krull’s Lives of the Writers (1994, illustrated by Kathryn Hewitt) . (Informational novelty. 9-11)Pub Date: June 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-63322-098-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Walter Foster Jr.
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
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by Saskia Lacey ; illustrated by Sernur Işık
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by Leanne Lauricella with Saskia Lacey ; illustrated by Jill Howarth
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by Leanne Lauricella & Saskia Lacey ; illustrated by Jill Howarth
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by Saskia Lacey ; illustrated by Sernur Işık
by John Farndon ; illustrated by Giuliano Aloisi ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2016
A bland alternative to You Wouldn’t Want to Be an Aztec Sacrifice (2013) and other entries in that rousing series.
In a tongue-limbering recitation, Tlenamacac (fire priest) Ten Vulture describes his city, his gods, and his training.
“It’s the year 1518 and you’re in the middle of the Aztec Empire,” he burbles, with a fine disregard for verisimilitude. “Aztecs rule, ok?” Ten Vulture then introduces Itztlacoliuhqui, Xipe Totec (“god of flayed skins…”), and eight other deities whose names are left to readers to sound out. Following this, he retraces his history from being chosen for the priesthood through games, wars, and blood sacrifices (with a bit of cannibalism thrown in). Despite multiple references to gruesome ritual practices, though, in the cartoon illustrations the occasional spatters of gore are almost unnoticeable. Aloisi populates his scenes with brown-skinned, bare-chested boys and men sporting elaborate headdresses or topknots (the few women in view are discreetly covered up). The attempt at historical accuracy seems to die with the scribbles that stand in for Aztec writing. At least most of the kanji in the co-published How to Live Like a Samurai Warrior and the hieroglyphics in How to Live Like an Egyptian Mummy Maker seem to be more than generic scribbles. These and How to Live Like a Caribbean Pirate (who were nearly all, at least according to illustrator Tatio Viano, white) are similarly framed as narratives by young participants.
A bland alternative to You Wouldn’t Want to Be an Aztec Sacrifice (2013) and other entries in that rousing series. (index, glossary) (Nonfiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5124-0628-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Hungry Tomato/Lerner
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
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by John Farndon ; illustrated by Tim Hutchinson
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by John Farndon ; illustrated by Venitia Dean
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by John Farndon ; illustrated by Cristina Portolano
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