In the new Success series, a history of the Navajo Arts and Crafts Enterprise (NACE), a tribal cooperative founded in 1975 to encourage Navajo silversmiths, weavers, and other craftsmen. Trahant intersperses the story of the cooperative's growth with biographical sketches and interviews of the Native Americans who work in the business: craftsmen, buyers, store managers, accountants, sales clerks, and publicists. Although these are interesting pieces, they interrupt the flow of the historical narrative, which often resembles an annual report. The book achieves its modest goal of showing positive role models for others of Native American ancestry, a goal which Roessel sets out in the introductory comments: ``I am tired of outsiders stepping into my community and supposedly telling `our story.' It is time that Navajos tell their own story.'' Add this to the shelves on contemporary Native American culture; it may also be of limited use in the business section. (b&w photos, index, not seen, appendix, glossary) (Nonfiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: March 15, 1996
ISBN: 0-8027-8336-8
Page Count: 73
Publisher: Walker
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1996
This companion to Great Deeds of the Superheroes (1990) has a tentative air: Whereas Saxby cemented the first collection of myths and legends by showing the common features of male heroes and hero tales everywhere, here he claims to have found no such correspondences. Of his 18 subjects, some—Athena, Judith, Boadicea, Joan of Arc—are undeniably heroic. But Aphrodite cuts a decidedly unheroic figure; it's appalling to think of Circe or Medea as role models; and the Zuni ``Hunter Maiden'' is not only rescued from a demon by two warrior gods, but they also do her hunting for her. The Vasilissa and Pocahantas tales are familiar; but the story of Miao Shan, who had her hands and eyes removed to restore her father's health and was later deified as Guanyin (the Chinese goddess of mercy), is less so, while the saga of Mary Bryant, an 18th-century convict who escaped the penal colony of Botany Bay with a 3000-mile journey in an open boat, will be new to most readers. Ingpen offers a series of powerfully telling portraits (some referring to Botticelli and other old masters) realistically depicting women of many ages, miens, and moods. Aside from occasional references in the text, there are no notes on sources beyond a perfunctory bibliography. Handsome, but of substantially less value than its predecessor. Index. (Nonfiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Nov. 16, 1992
ISBN: 0-87226-348-7
Page Count: 156
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1992
Trying to cross to the West, Hannah's mother has been shot to death at the Berlin Wall; for fear she'll be sent to a children's home, Hannah hides her feelings beneath conformity. At the same time, Steffi leaves school in disgust after five students are expelled for signing a petition. The two teenagers fall in together as a tide of protest is rising; while more friends and teachers go west or drop from sight, the two witness savage police attacks on ever-larger demonstrations. Lutzeier presents a clear picture of East German society: economic scarcities; the ubiquitous, ever-obvious secret police; anti- Semitism; the slanted views of the West. She contrasts to these daily facts of life a common spirit, a steady hope for a better future that manifests itself in unexpected places. Steffi's colorful rebelliousness and Hannah's quiet fears play off one another well; meanwhile, the tension and violence mount until the electrifying, unexpected announcement that ``they've opened the wall'' sends triumphant crowds surging into the streets. The author (whose The Coldest Winter, 1991, effectively dramatized Ireland's potato famine) treats her characters, and the German people, with respect, opening a window to a once-hidden society. (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1992
ISBN: 0-8234-0987-2
Page Count: 154
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1992
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