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
An entertaining story with a plucky main character, a problem-solver rather than a thief.
A boy named Georgie secretly makes presents for his parents and surprises them on Christmas morning, when he receives a surprise gift himself.
The setting is rural Pennsylvania in 1929. Georgie, who looks about 10, has sent a letter to Santa asking for new ice skates, as his are too small, but Georgie’s dad tells him Santa might not be coming to their house that year. On Christmas Eve, Georgie takes his mother’s sewing kit and some of his father’s clothes to his room, where he stays up all night making presents and a Santa suit for himself. On Christmas morning he dresses as Santa and gives his mother a handmade pincushion and his father a key chain. They surprise Georgie with the skates he wanted, as a gift from them rather than Santa. This conclusion neatly sidesteps the issue of Georgie’s belief in Santa and whether Santa is real. Dark, rather depressing illustrations establish a moody atmosphere in the house, with effective characterization of Georgie as a child with both worries and determination. All the characters are white. The title is a misnomer, as Georgie doesn’t really steal anything but simply borrows his mother’s sewing kit and his father’s clothing. The cover illustration shows a sad Georgie holding Christmas tree decorations and wearing a Santa hat, implying he has stolen those decorations.
An entertaining story with a plucky main character, a problem-solver rather than a thief. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-940716-86-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: SparkPress
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
Overall, merely adequate.
The grass has been greener on the other side for millennia—just ask our prehistoric friend Dave.
Dave lives in a cave decorated with realistic wall paintings, there’s green grass outside, and his woodland friends—a bird and a squirrel—enjoy spending time at his prehistoric bachelor pad. Yet even with all of his comforts, Dave is worried that he may be missing out on a bigger and better cave. It’s this fear that drives Dave out to find a better home and leads readers to question if the grass really is greener on the other side. While readers ponder the existential gravitas of this inquiry, they’ll follow Dave as he travels from caves that are too small, too big, etc. Unsurprisingly, the cave that Dave ultimately ends up in is very familiar. The message of the book is strong, but the writing weakens the point through irregular cavemanspeak that includes words such as “quite” and “cozy” but misses basic verbs. Adults reading the book aloud will quickly tire of the narrative style. The digitally created illustrations are done in the collage style but lack the energy and whimsy of the medium. Dave’s pale skin tone and mop of green hair are roughly styled in The Flintstones school, but he is far more inscrutable than Fred or Barney ever were; his facial expressions do not easily reflect the emotional responses of his situations.
Overall, merely adequate. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7636-9628-3
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2017
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