A roughly stitched-up alternative to Deborah Hopkinson’s more developed and informative hybrid, Hear My Sorrow (2004).
A large section of period photos complements a partly fictional account of the 1911 New York City fire that killed 146 factory workers.
Recently arrived on the Lower East Side with her immigrant family, 15-year-old Cecelia Napoli becomes fast friends with Rose Mehl, a Jewish teen who lives in the tenement apartment below. When Cecelia’s father contracts tuberculosis and is sent to a sanatorium, not only does Rose help Cecelia find a job at the Triangle Waist Company, but she heroically comes to her aid in the vaguely described fire. A few thin slices of Lower East Side life and a cast largely composed, except for the Napolis, of historical figures (including Rose, one of the fire’s youngest victims) do little to bring this rudimentary plot to life. Moreover, along with a mistaken claim that the fire was the city’s worst disaster before 9/11 (that “honor” goes to the sinking of the General Slocum, 1904), the author’s afterword simply summarizes information readily available in encyclopedias and recent nonfiction accounts for young readers. The photos do present telling scenes of crowded tenements, city streets and the fire’s aftermath, but two images of newspaper pages (one in Italian) are illegible except for the headlines. Four pages of discussion questions are appended, but there are no reading lists or other leads to further sources of information or pictures.
A roughly stitched-up alternative to Deborah Hopkinson’s more developed and informative hybrid, Hear My Sorrow (2004). (index) (Historical fiction. 10-13)Pub Date: March 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-62619-645-2
Page Count: 96
Publisher: The History Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 10, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2015
Logically pointing out that the American cowboy archetype didn’t spring up from nowhere, Sandler, author of Cowboys (1994) and other volumes in the superficial, if luxuriously illustrated, “Library of Congress Book” series, looks back over 400 years of cattle tending in North America. His coverage ranges from the livestock carried on Columbus’s second voyage to today’s herding-by-helicopter operations. Here, too, the generous array of dramatic early prints, paintings, and photos are more likely to capture readers’ imaginations than the generality-ridden text. But among his vague comments about the characters, values, and culture passed by Mexican vaqueros to later arrivals from the Eastern US, Sadler intersperses nods to the gauchos, llaneros, and other South American “cowmen,” plus the paniolos of Hawaii, and the renowned African-American cowboys. He also decries the role film and popular literature have played in suppressing the vaqueros’ place in the history of the American West. He tackles an uncommon topic, and will broaden the historical perspective of many young cowboy fans, but his glance at modern vaqueros seems to stop at this country’s borders. Young readers will get a far more detailed, vivid picture of vaquero life and work from the cowboy classics in his annotated bibliography. (Notes, glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2001
ISBN: 0-8050-6019-7
Page Count: 116
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2000
An introduction to ancient Egypt and the Pharaohs buried in the Valley of the Kings. The authors begin with how archaeologist Howard Carter found the tomb of King Tut, then move back 3,000 years to the time of Thutmosis I, who built the first tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Finally they describe the building of the tomb of a later Pharaoh, Ramses II. The backward-forward narration is not always easy to follow, and the authors attribute emotions to the Pharaohs without citation. For example, “Thutmosis III was furious [with Hatshepsut]. He was especially annoyed that she planned to be buried in KV 20, the tomb of her father.” Since both these people lived 3,500 years ago, speculation on who was furious or annoyed should be used with extreme caution. And the tangled intrigue of Egyptian royalty is not easily sorted out in so brief a work. Throughout, though, there are spectacular photographs of ancient Egyptian artifacts, monuments, tomb paintings, jewels, and death masks that will appeal to young viewers. The photographs of the exposed mummies of Ramses II, King Tut, and Seti I are compelling. More useful for the hauntingly beautiful photos than the text. (brief bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7922-7223-4
Page Count: 64
Publisher: National Geographic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2001
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