A story well worth sharing.
Black pilot James Herman Banning makes history with a cross-country flight in 1932.
Banner wanted wings from the time he was a child. He read widely as a child and young man, and he attended college for one year—as one of only seven Black students accepted—but was forced to leave for financial reasons. As he opened a mechanic shop, he continued to dream of flying. But no flight schools would take on a Black student. One day, a pilot came into his shop with a motorcycle, and Banning asked him for lessons. This time, the answer was yes. Banning finally got his chance to learn to fly. He earned his pilot’s license and continued teaching himself. He moved to California to teach at a new aviation school for Black men and women. Then he set out to pursue a new dream: to fly from Los Angeles to Long Island. With a partner, a cobbled-together airplane, and the support of many, both individuals and whole communities where they stopped on the way, Banning achieved this goal. Long paragraphs of text on each spread detail dates and locations of the duo’s flight. The level of detail provided makes this book suitable for older readers, particularly those interested in flight. Cooper’s softly painted artwork creates a lovely period feel to complement the story. Banning’s determination in overcoming obstacles is impressive, and the realistic ways in which supporters and refusers influenced his path paint an accurate portrait of the United States. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-16-inch double-page spreads viewed at 67.5% of actual size.)
A story well worth sharing. (note, sources, further reading) (Picture book/biography. 6-10)Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-984847-62-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
Blandly laudatory.
The iconic animator introduces young readers to each “happy place” in his life.
The tally begins with his childhood home in Marceline, Missouri, and climaxes with Disneyland (carefully designed to be “the happiest place on Earth”), but the account really centers on finding his true happy place, not on a map but in drawing. In sketching out his early flubs and later rocket to the top, the fictive narrator gives Ub Iwerks and other Disney studio workers a nod (leaving his labor disputes with them unmentioned) and squeezes in quick references to his animated films, from Steamboat Willie to Winnie the Pooh (sans Fantasia and Song of the South). Eliopoulos incorporates stills from the films into his cartoon illustrations and, characteristically for this series, depicts Disney as a caricature, trademark mustache in place on outsized head even in childhood years and child sized even as an adult. Human figures default to white, with occasional people of color in crowd scenes and (ahistorically) in the animation studio. One unidentified animator builds up the role-modeling with an observation that Walt and Mickey were really the same (“Both fearless; both resourceful”). An assertion toward the end—“So when do you stop being a child? When you stop dreaming”—muddles the overall follow-your-bliss message. A timeline to the EPCOT Center’s 1982 opening offers photos of the man with select associates, rodent and otherwise. An additional series entry, I Am Marie Curie, publishes simultaneously, featuring a gowned, toddler-sized version of the groundbreaking physicist accepting her two Nobel prizes.
Blandly laudatory. (bibliography) (Picture book/biography. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-7352-2875-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
A pivotal moment in a child’s life, at once stirring and authentically personal.
Before growing up to become a major figure in the civil rights movement, a boy finds a role model.
Buffing up a childhood tale told by her renowned father, Young Shelton describes how young Andrew saw scary men marching in his New Orleans neighborhood (“It sounded like they were yelling ‘Hi, Hitler!’ ”). In response to his questions, his father took him to see a newsreel of Jesse Owens (“a runner who looked like me”) triumphing in the 1936 Olympics. “Racism is a sickness,” his father tells him. “We’ve got to help folks like that.” How? “Well, you can start by just being the best person you can be,” his father replies. “It’s what you do that counts.” In James’ hazy chalk pastels, Andrew joins racially diverse playmates (including a White child with an Irish accent proudly displaying the nickel he got from his aunt as a bribe to stop playing with “those Colored boys”) in tag and other games, playing catch with his dad, sitting in the midst of a cheering crowd in the local theater’s segregated balcony, and finally visualizing himself pelting down a track alongside his new hero—“head up, back straight, eyes focused,” as a thematically repeated line has it, on the finish line. An afterword by Young Shelton explains that she retold this story, told to her many times growing up, drawing from conversations with Young and from her own research; family photos are also included. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A pivotal moment in a child’s life, at once stirring and authentically personal. (illustrator’s note) (Autobiographical picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-545-55465-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
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