A sweet and inspiring children’s tale that encourages young readers to stay true to themselves.
Cybulski’s historical fiction book for children chronicles the adventures of Johnny Chapman, the little boy who would grow up to become the legendary Johnny Appleseed.
It’s 1783 and 9-year-old Johnny Chapman is living a quiet life with his father, stepmother, and siblings in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. After Johnny is repeatedly disciplined for daydreaming in school by the stern Master Loomis, his father pulls him out, maintaining that “dreamers like Johnny are exactly what this new nation needs.” But now the time has come for him to return to formal schooling with a different (and hopefully more lenient) teacher. While he’s initially nervous, Johnny turns out to have many exciting adventures during the school year, like performing in the Incorporation Day presentation to celebrate Longmeadow officially getting its name put on the map. A natural friend to all animals, Johnny has many exploits involving them—from assisting his neighbor corralling escaped sheep and attempting to help his classmate overcome her fear of bees after being stung to checking on the stable animals after a lightning strike burns down a neighbor’s barn. By year’s end, his stepmother praises Johnny for learning valuable lessons and overcoming his fear of school: “You are quietly brave. You had a fear and a shame that made you want to hide away at home…but you didn’t. You went and faced the thing that made you scared.” Lak’s rough black-and-white sketches, including a charming map of Longmeadow, help to contextualize the events of this early-reader chapter book. With clear prose and dialogue, Cybulski sprinkles in many real facts about Johnny’s life and home. The choice to focus on Johnny’s childhood, as opposed to the better-known stories of who he eventually becomes, is a fruitful one that pays off by lending a humanity and realness to a story that could easily have slipped into tall-tale embellishment.
A sweet and inspiring children’s tale that encourages young readers to stay true to themselves.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9798882560446
Page Count: 161
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: April 8, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An emotional, much-needed historical graphic novel.
Sandy and his family, Japanese Canadians, experience hatred and incarceration during World War II.
Sandy Saito loves baseball, and the Vancouver Asahi ballplayers are his heroes. But when they lose in the 1941 semifinals, Sandy’s dad calls it a bad omen. Sure enough, in December 1941, Japan bombs Pearl Harbor in the U.S. The Canadian government begins to ban Japanese people from certain areas, moving them to “dormitories” and setting a curfew. Sandy wants to spend time with his father, but as a doctor, his dad is busy, often sneaking out past curfew to work. One night Papa is taken to “where he [is] needed most,” and the family is forced into an internment camp. Life at the camp isn’t easy, and even with some of the Asahi players playing ball there, it just isn’t the same. Trying to understand and find joy again, Sandy struggles with his new reality and relationship with his father. Based on the true experiences of Japanese Canadians and the Vancouver Asahi team, this graphic novel is a glimpse of how their lives were affected by WWII. The end is a bit abrupt, but it’s still an inspiring and sweet look at how baseball helped them through hardship. The illustrations are all in a sepia tone, giving it an antique look and conveying the emotions and struggles. None of the illustrations of their experiences are overly graphic, making it a good introduction to this upsetting topic for middle-grade readers.
An emotional, much-needed historical graphic novel. (afterword, further resources) (Graphic historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5253-0334-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A deftly told story that dramatizes how Danes appointed themselves bodyguards—not only for their king, who was in the habit...
The author of the Anastasia books as well as more serious fiction (Rabble Starkey, 1987) offers her first historical fiction—a story about the escape of the Jews from Denmark in 1943.
Five years younger than Lisa in Carol Matas' Lisa's War (1989), Annemarie Johansen has, at 10, known three years of Nazi occupation. Though ever cautious and fearful of the ubiquitous soldiers, she is largely unaware of the extent of the danger around her; the Resistance kept even its participants safer by telling them as little as possible, and Annemarie has never been told that her older sister Lise died in its service. When the Germans plan to round up the Jews, the Johansens take in Annemarie's friend, Ellen Rosen, and pretend she is their daughter; later, they travel to Uncle Hendrik's house on the coast, where the Rosens and other Jews are transported by fishing boat to Sweden. Apart from Lise's offstage death, there is little violence here; like Annemarie, the reader is protected from the full implications of events—but will be caught up in the suspense and menace of several encounters with soldiers and in Annemarie's courageous run as courier on the night of the escape. The book concludes with the Jews' return, after the war, to homes well kept for them by their neighbors.
A deftly told story that dramatizes how Danes appointed themselves bodyguards—not only for their king, who was in the habit of riding alone in Copenhagen, but for their Jews. (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: April 1, 1989
ISBN: 0547577095
Page Count: 156
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1989
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