While ultimately it may not entirely work as story or history, Krebs offers a glimpse into a part of human culture most youngsters—or oldsters—may not know at all. In rhyme, she tracks China’s Silk Road, evocatively used these days as a metaphor for all kinds of cross-cultural memes, as a kind of exotic school chant. There’s a running chorus, “We’re riding on a caravan, a bumpy humpy caravan,” and there’s the first-person plural narrative, also rhymed, from Xi’an to Kashgar as silks are traded for wool, rice for bread. The yearlong trek ends at Kashgar’s Sunday market, which still exists today. The colorful pictures, made with bits of silk brocade and marbled paper collage as well as watercolor, show many kinds of costume and many ages and genders of caravan travelers. The pictures are busy with animals and wagons, desert and mountains. Author’s notes cover some background, but no sources are given. Adult readers will probably yearn for more information, but children will enjoy the bouncing rhythm and the intricate images. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 1-84148-343-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Barefoot Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An artful telling of the birth of an alphabet.
A king’s love of learning and his people leads to a landmark achievement.
Born in Korea in 1397, young prince Yi Do has a love of reading. Since he is royalty, his education enables him to learn Hanja, a complex Chinese writing system used at that time. Through his studies Yi Do realizes that Hanja does not suit the Korean language and is only accessible to the rich, leaving the rest of the population largely illiterate. When Yi Do takes the throne as King Sejong, he declares, “When the heavens nourish the earth…they do not distinguish between the great and the small. When a king loves his people, it should be the same,” and endeavors to create an alphabet understood by all. Kim’s straightforward and evenly paced narrative reveals that King Sejong’s goal is not met without challenges. Even after deciding carefully to shape his consonants so they reflect how the mouth makes the sounds, he still toils on Hangeul, his 28-letter alphabet, for 10 more years. Subsequent protests from members of the government and refusal to use the system threaten initial public acceptance. Yet King Sejong’s language legacy endures. Kang artfully uses bright colors and textured cartoons to bring movement and life to the story. More detailed information about King Sejong, Hangeul, and the historic context around its acceptance is appended.
An artful telling of the birth of an alphabet. (bibliography) (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-8075-4161-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
An accessible introduction to a little-known but life-changing victory for disabled children.
Co-author Leffler, who has cerebral palsy, explains how children with disabilities won the right to attend public school.
At age 3, Leffler entered public school, where—like “other kids with disabilities all around America”—she learned and played “side by side” with her friends. But, she learned, “it hadn’t always been that way.” In the early 1970s, public schools “said NO to millions of children who wanted to go to school”; disabled children were segregated in special schools, attended inferior classes, or simply stayed home. In an eye-opening double-page spread packed with racially diverse, cartoon-style children, a child notes, “There’s about 1,000 kids on this page”—a fraction of the 8 million disabled children across the United States being denied an education. Drawing on the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case banning racial school segregation, the determined parents of seven children with disabilities—all of whom present as kids of color—filed a class-action lawsuit: Mills v. Board of Education of the District of Columbia. Speech-balloon dialogue presents parents’ pleas, school authorities’ opposition, and lawyers’ arguments. Finally, on Aug. 1,1972, Judge Joseph C. Waddy ruled that “children with disabilities must be given a free public education,” spurring similar federal court cases. Illustrator and co-author Cocca-Leffler warmly depicts figures with an array of skin tones; some children are blind, and some use wheelchairs. Leffler presents White.
An accessible introduction to a little-known but life-changing victory for disabled children. (note, timeline, authors' note, attorney's note, sources) (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-8075-3518-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
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