An engaging introduction to the mind-boggling monument that has held tight to its secrets for thousands of years.
Manning and Granström have assembled what is considered known about Stonehenge, plus a few shots in the not-complete dark, into this handsome and atmospheric picture book. That so little is understood about the site adds much to its allure. It is yet another wonder how the jacket flap copy gets away with “The mysteries and secrets of Stonehenge—revealed!” since the authors are careful to emphasize how little is still known. When they move into the realm of conjecture, they stick to very plausible ideas: how the stones may have been moved, suggestions relative to its orientation and its possible relationship with nearby Durrington Walls. The artwork has a lively energy—the hand is freer than David Macaulay’s or Mitsumasa Anno’s, but it conveys the same sense of time and place—and the text is straightforward without detracting from the stones’ delightfully secretive qualities. Indeed, one of the great pleasures of this book is in imparting the fun of having these unknowns, and maybe unknowable, among us, to let the imagination work overtime trying to simply drink it all in.
If we can no longer wander among the stones, which is a crying shame, this is a good start at getting into the circle’s perplexity. (Informational picture book. 7-11)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-84780-346-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: Oct. 2, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
Categories: CHILDREN'S HISTORY
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Highlighting women writers, educators, and reformers from the 18th and early 19th centuries, Roberts brings a group of women, many not so well-known, into focus and provides a new perspective on the early history of the United States in this picture-book version of her adult book of the same title (2008).
The women include Lucy Terry Prince, a persuasive speaker who created the first poem (an oral piece not written down for over 100 years after its creation) by an African-American; Elizabeth Bayley Seton, the first American-born saint and the founder of Catholic institutions including schools, hospitals, and orphanages; and Rebecca Gratz, a young philanthropist who started many organizations to help the Jewish community in Philadelphia. The author usually uses some quotes from primary-source materials and enlivens her text with descriptive events, such as Meriweather Lewis’ citation of Sacagawea’s “equal fortitude” with the males of the exploration party during a storm, saving many supplies when their boat capsized. The sepia-hued pen-and-ink drawings are inspired by the letters of the era, and the soft watercolor portraits of the women and the paintings that reveal more of their stories are traditional in feeling. In her introduction, the author emphasizes the importance of historical materials, such as letters, organizational records, journals, and books written at the time. Despite this, there is no bibliography or other means of sourcing quoted material.
These short pieces may start young people on the search for more information about these intriguing figures. (Informational picture book. 8-11)Pub Date: Dec. 6, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-078005-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2016
Categories: CHILDREN'S BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | CHILDREN'S HISTORY
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BOOK REVIEW
A boy experiences the Boston Tea Party, the response to the Intolerable Acts, and the battle at Breed’s Hill in Charlestown.
Philbrick has taken his Bunker Hill (2013), pulled from its 400 pages the pivotal moments, added a 12-year-old white boy—Benjamin Russell—as the pivot, and crafted a tale of what might have happened to him during those days of unrest in Boston from 1773 to 1775 (Russell was a real person). Philbrick explains, in plainspoken but gradually accelerating language, the tea tax, the Boston Tea Party, the Intolerable Acts, and the quartering of troops in Boston as well as the institution of a military government. Into this ferment, he introduces Benjamin Russell, where he went to school, his part-time apprenticeship at Isaiah Thomas’ newspaper, sledding down Beacon Hill, and the British officer who cleaned the cinders from the snow so the boys could sled farther and farther. It is these humanizing touches that make war its own intolerable act. Readers see Benjamin, courtesy of Minor’s misty gouache-and-watercolor tableaux, as he becomes stranded outside Boston Neck and becomes a clerk for the patriots. Significant characters are introduced, as is the geography of pre-landfilled Boston, to gain a good sense of why certain actions took place where they did. The final encounter at Breed’s Hill demonstrates how a battle can be won by retreating.
A crisp historical vignette. (maps, author’s note, illustrator’s note) (Historical fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: May 23, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-16674-7
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2017
Categories: CHILDREN'S HISTORY
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