Anne Frank’s story of confinement for several years after the Nazi takeover of the Netherlands, including her tragic death, is simply but accessibly told.
Marshall introduces Anne as an individual. “As a baby, Anne cried. LOUD. As a toddler, she was silly and made everyone laugh. And as a little girl, she spoke her mind.” Marshall intersperses this account with brief historical interludes. An image of Anne and her friend throwing water on people from a balcony is indicative of her happy early childhood, but by 1940 the Nazis invaded the Netherlands. When she receives her diary for her 13th birthday, the text notes that Anne “wrote about new rules that stopped her—and all Jews—from riding bikes, going to movies, playing in public parks, and attending public schools.” Children will understand how these restrictions would change life immeasurably. Marshall chronicles the Franks’ time in the Secret Annex with short, poetic sentences about what Anne wrote. The flat illustrations show Anne with her dark hair and intense eyes in happy and sad times, the lack of depth emphasizing Anne’s confinement. History is reflected on several pages with darker palettes that include maps to help readers understand the proximity of Germany to the countries it conquered. The last spread celebrates Anne’s legacy.
This brief biography makes Frank’s writing an effective introductory focus for young readers. (afterword, timeline, author's note, sources, bibliography, websites) (Picture book/biography. 7-9)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-31229-4
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
Categories: CHILDREN'S FAMILY | CHILDREN'S HISTORY | CHILDREN'S RELIGION
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Sally Ride: from tennis-playing schoolgirl through astronaut and educator to entrepreneur.
Sally Ride stars in this entry to the chapter-book series spun off from Chelsea Clinton and Alexandra Boiger’s picture book She Persisted (2017). Long before she becomes the first woman to go to space, Sally is an athlete, a White girl born in California in 1951. She’s a tennis whiz but an inconsistent scholar, attending a prestigious private school on an athletic scholarship. Though the narrative a little ostentatiously tells readers that “Sally persisted,” the youth presented here—a child who rolls her eyes at boring teachers, a college student who drops out to play tennis, an excellent tennis player who “just did not enjoy” the effort of becoming a professional—shows the opposite. Sexism is alluded to, but no barriers are portrayed as blocking young Sally herself. Though her amazing achievements aren’t downplayed, the groundbreaking Sally Ride, in this telling, becomes simply someone who applied for a job and excelled once she liked what she was doing. Sally’s partner, Tam O’Shaughnessy, is mentioned as such, but the text avoids using any pronouns for O’Shaughnessy, which, along with her gender-neutral name, may leave many young readers ignorant that Ride silently broke sexuality barriers as well.
Despite choruses praising Ride’s persistence, her life is inexplicably portrayed as lacking struggle. (reading list, websites) (Biography. 7-9)Pub Date: March 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-11592-3
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
“This is a true tale about two mighty nations, an ill-fated pig, and a most unusual war. It is also a story about sharing.”
That opening, in black, sans-serif lettering, is followed by further text that’s broken up by red-inked headings for date, setting, characters, and mood. Continuing a jaunty, lighthearted tone that proceeds throughout the text, it informs readers that the mood is “About to change, for the worse.” The verso sports an antique-looking map of the Western Hemisphere with a detail of San Juan—a Pacific Northwest coast island of, in 1859, ambiguous provenance inhabited both by British employees of the Hudson’s Bay Company and a few American settlers. (The original, Indigenous residents are relegated to a parenthetical mention in the author’s note and figure not at all in the story.) As the story begins, an American named Lyman Cutlar angrily kills Brit Charles Griffin’s pig as it eats from Cutlar’s potato patch. Cutlar apologizes and offers to pay for the pig but then refuses to pay Griffin’s exorbitant asking price. Enter authorities from both nations in an escalation that eventually involves scores of warships. When war seems inevitable, Gen. Winfield Scott is sent by President James Buchanan to mediate. The text is true to its introduction, and it also pursues the idea that hotheadedness leads to disastrous consequences. Vocabulary, verbosity, and content suit this for older elementary, independent readers. The storytelling goes a bit flat at the end, when Cutlar is mentioned but not Griffin. Colorful, stylized art against apparently distressed surfaces is an impeccable complement. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at 42.6% of actual size.)
Weirdly fascinating. (photographs, timeline, resources, artist’s note) (Informational picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-68437-171-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Calkins Creek/Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2020
Categories: CHILDREN'S HISTORY | CHILDREN'S ANIMALS
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