Touching.
“Amahirwe aza rimwe,” or “chance comes once,” in this story of 9-year-old Rebeka’s brave journey from Rwanda to the United States for a life-changing surgery.
Rebeka Uwitonze, raised in Bugesera, Rwanda, was born with arthrogryposis, which caused her joints to contract, resulting in curled and twisted feet. With the support of her little sister Medea, she eventually walks on the tops of her feet, but it will soon become impossible to continue upright without further intervention. Fortunately, what began simply as a school sponsorship turns into the chance of a lifetime: Co-author Davis and her husband of Austin, Texas, will host Rebeka so she can receive surgery that will enable her to walk for the rest of her life. Yet this means that Rebeka must leave her family and the country she knows for a world and language that are totally different. She writes home to Medea and keeps a small blue handkerchief stitched with her mother’s love in her home language, Kinyarwanda: “Protect me from grief. I will be your pride.” When Rebeka finally returns home after 58 hospital visits and 31 different casts, she’s able to share her new experiences and spread the bravery to her peers to confront any and all life challenges. The story is related in a tightly focused third person and incorporates substantial dialogue; Davis describes the process in concluding notes. Snapshots of Rebeka both at home and with her white host family help to document her journey.
Touching. (Biography. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-35637-3
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Scholastic Focus
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
Teachers may find this well-meaning guide useful, but it won’t be top-of-mind for most children.
An earnest introduction to a secular mindfulness practice.
After introducing basic vocabulary and definitions, Stewart explains meditation and breathing techniques using the metaphor of a toolbox. Seven more chapters provide detail about how to apply the tools to the inner self, emotions, thoughts, actions, heart, home, and outside. Some chapters include guided visualizations. Each includes broad journal prompts and encourages the use of the Mindful Me Activity Book (sold separately). The final chapter reminds readers that mindfulness is a practice that takes time and attention. Stewart is careful to not guarantee specific outcomes and leaves the choice of how and when to use the exercises open to readers. Still, repetition of similar points and her earnest tone sometimes come across as preachy. Older children may find the self-conscious, repeated use of the branding phrase “MINDFUL ME,” instead of simply “mindfulness,” patronizing. In the introduction, Stewart claims 12 benefits to mindfulness practice that “scientists and doctors have discovered” but cites no studies or sources to support this assertion. There is a nod to inclusion with illustrations showing a child in a wheelchair and another with glasses, as well as children with varying skin tones and hairstyles. However, middle-class assumptions and values permeate the situations used to explain the technique, as in the assumption that readers will have their own bedrooms, or indeed quiet rooms at all, to retreat to.
Teachers may find this well-meaning guide useful, but it won’t be top-of-mind for most children. (Nonfiction. 8-12)Pub Date: April 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-8075-5144-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An ennobling portrait of a pioneer who took the library out of its walls and to the public.
Anyone who has enjoyed the services of a bookmobile can thank a dedicated, visionary librarian named Mary Lemist Titcomb.
With career opportunities limited for women in 19th-century America, Titcomb chose the emerging new field of librarianship. After an apprenticeship, Titcomb was hired by the Rutland Free Library in Vermont, where she quickly moved up to chief librarian. A significant career disappointment was Melvil Dewey’s rejection of her application to serve in the Woman’s Building library at the Chicago World’s Fair; Dewey acknowledged Titcomb’s admirable work in Vermont but said she had not done enough to make herself known beyond. That slap inspired Titcomb to work tirelessly to make a name for herself and a difference in her profession. Titcomb’s greatest contribution to library services came as head of the Washington County Free Library in Hagerstown, Maryland. Determined to make the library accessible to the county’s rural residents, the most revolutionary of her innovations was a horse-drawn book wagon. A horseless carriage later succeeded it. Book wagons soon appeared in other parts of the country, and by 1922, the bookmobile was born. Titcomb’s complete dedication to her work and determination to succeed is inspiring, and the peek into her climb up the career ladder is revelatory beyond its look at the history of librarianship. Attractively designed to resemble a scrapbook, the engaging narrative is complemented with archival photographs, reproductions of correspondence, and other artifacts.
An ennobling portrait of a pioneer who took the library out of its walls and to the public. (source notes, bibliography) (Biography. 8-12)Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2875-4
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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