A delightful volume that deftly and wittily balances learning with humor and approachable perspective.
Human history is told in a series of bite-size, point-of-view cartoons covering lots of ground.
What if the Age of Enlightenment were encapsulated by Isaac Newton's cat, Spithead? What if a Greek vase could talk, providing insight into ancient pottery making? This delightful, informational, and necessarily loopy book tackles history in three parts: “Ancient History,” “The Middle Ages,” and “The Modern Age.” The book goes in strange directions, giving inanimate objects, locations, and animals the same weight as, say, a day in the life of a “movie writer” from 1927 or the queen of England. As with the duo's previous book, A Day in the Life of a Poo, a Gnu and You (2020), pages featuring panels are intercut with “Bigger Picture” spreads, fictional diaries, and “Newsflashes” that detail other events happening around the same time. Those features break up what might otherwise be an exhausting read, not because the energetic, playful writing and versatile drawings aren't entertaining but because there is so much factual material being covered in between Game of Thrones references, talking poop, and on-point critiques of, for instance, Christopher Columbus’ inhumane treatment of Indigenous people. The book is worth returning to again and again for new nuggets of knowledge (“Neolithic humans used flint axes and wedges to work me into shape,” says a Standing Stone from 2100 B.C.E., “Talk about a 'splitting' headache!”). Characters range in skin tone throughout.
A delightful volume that deftly and wittily balances learning with humor and approachable perspective. (glossary, “About Mike and Jess”) (Graphic nonfiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-78055-713-7
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Buster Books
Review Posted Online: May 6, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
After surveying “competing claims” for the first Thanksgiving from 1541 on, in Texas, Florida, Maine, Virginia and Massachusetts, Colman decides in favor of the 1621 event with the English colonists and Wampanoag as the first “because the 1621 event was more like the Thanksgiving that we celebrate today.” She demonstrates, however, that the “Pilgrim and Indian” story is really not the antecedent of Thanksgiving as we celebrate it today. Rather, two very old traditions—harvest festivals and days of thanksgiving for special events—were the origin, and this interesting volume traces how the custom of proclaiming a general day of thanksgiving took hold. Yet, since many Thanksgiving celebrations in towns and schools are still rooted in the “Pilgrim and Indian” story, which the author calls “true and important,” but which many Native Americans find objectionable, a more in-depth discussion of it is warranted here. The solid bibliography does include some fine resources, such as 1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving (2001) by Catherine O’Neill Grace and Margaret M. Bruchac. (author’s note, chronology, index) (Nonfiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8050-8229-6
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
His enemies may have called him an outsider, but Alexander Hamilton was loyal to his adopted country. In a swift and lively narrative, Fritz traces Hamilton’s life from his childhood in the West Indies to schooling in America and on to his involvement in just about every phase of the nation’s birthing. A soldier in Washington’s army, he was later asked to be on Washington’s staff as an aide-de-camp, thus beginning a close relationship with the future president. Later, Hamilton was asked to be the first secretary of the treasury for the new nation, the perfect position for a Federalist, who believed in a strong central government, a national bank and a monetary standard. The narrative features abundant detail without ever losing sight of Hamilton the person, no small feat for a work about a complicated man in complex times, and Schoenherr’s black-and-white illustrations are a perfect complement to the text. The volume comes to an unfortunately perfunctory conclusion with Hamilton’s death in his duel with Aaron Burr, though source notes add interesting additional reading. (Biography. 9-12)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25546-5
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
