Readers don’t need to have been recently emancipated to understand this eloquent testament to the overriding importance of...
Emancipation means education.
A little girl narrates her family’s story in the days and months immediately after the end of slavery. Her parents decide that she and her brother must attend school in spite of the dangers they face walking there. The school does not have very much in the way of supplies or heat, but it does have a teacher “with skin as brown as mine,” says the girl. Students come and go depending on when they are needed in the field. Then racism strikes, and the school burns down. Still, the community spirit is strong, and the African-American neighbors come together to rebuild. Cline-Ransome does not give a specific locale for the story, thus making it representative of much of the rural South after the Civil War. Telling the story in the voice of a child helps to make the story more immediate and should help young readers appreciate the difficulties involved in building, maintaining and attending school. Ransome’s watercolor paintings are richly evocative of the seasons while also creating memorable characters and emotions. The endpapers depicting a blackboard with upper- and lowercase letters written in chalk are a child-friendly touch.
Readers don’t need to have been recently emancipated to understand this eloquent testament to the overriding importance of school. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4231-6103-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Disney-Jump at the Sun
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2014
Altogether, a pleasing interpretation of the creative process and the power of art to connect individuals.
Girls and women are often the overlooked players in music history.
This appealing book highlights a little-known facet of Antonio Vivaldi's composing life. He wrote much of his music for an Invisible Orchestra made up of girls from a Venetian orphanage, who performed behind a curtain. Costanza imagines that one of the young orphans wrote the four sonnets that inspired Vivaldi's "Four Seasons." Candida is Vivaldi's copyist, and she spends her days transcribing parts from his scores onto sheets for the musicians. His music feeds her daydreams, and she unconsciously scribbles poetry in the margins. Bright pastels in jewel tones create a patchwork of colors depicting the musical sources of Candida's inspiration; glittering stars and shimmering light dance across the pages. In contrast, the scores are drawn on a parchmentlike background. The musical notation is accurate and clearly legible, which will satisfy readers who are themselves musicians. Less pleasing is the sporadic use of italics, which has more of the effect of a reading primer than musical ornamentation. Some are effective as emphasis, others less so: "… to great applause… Candida stepped out and took a bow." Fluid pacing of scenes lyrically advances the story, although the characters' outsized heads sometimes threaten to overwhelm the charm of the illustrations.
Altogether, a pleasing interpretation of the creative process and the power of art to connect individuals. (author's note) (Picture book. 4–7)Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-8050-7801-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A young girl dreams of the day peace will come to contemporary Afghanistan, the war-torn country she loves.
Letting her imagination soar, a little girl looks to the sky and visualizes flying the “bright kite of peace” across Afghanistan into “people’s houses, their homes, their families, their hearts.” She sees her dream in children’s smiles and eyes, “a wonderful dream in which we all hold hands” and the “sound of war has truly gone forever.” She envisions a future filled with hope, opportunity and harmony. Speaking idealistically in the present tense, the little girl’s voice rings with compelling optimism, and her verbal images of the sky, kites, soaring and flying are visually reinforced in elegant, wistful illustrations that compositionally sweep the eye diagonally upward across the page from left to right. Somber, gray pencil drawings and tan backgrounds reflect the current bleak Afghan reality, while blue headscarves and red kites provide hopeful accents. Powerful images of dancing kites, ascending doves, women in burqas, a child playing with toys made from trash and flowers sprouting from tanks juxtapose the real and the aspirational. While topically relevant, the absence of historical, political or cultural context for the current Afghan crisis may leave young readers somewhat clueless. Ardent advocacy for Afghan peace. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-84-15503-04-0
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Cuento de Luz
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
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