by Mirka M.G. Breen ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 14, 2012
The readable style capably delivers a history lesson likely unfamiliar to young readers.
A historical novel for young readers about a girl during Israel’s Six Day War.
Like Mira, the novel’s protagonist, Breen (There’s a Turkey at the Door?, 2011) was a fifth grader in Israel during the Six Day War in 1967. As Breen explains in her author’s note, her own experiences and research were used in writing Mira’s story. With her country on the brink of war, Mira is concerned with ordinary things like homework and the loyalty of her best friend, Gili. Mira has bigger concerns, too. Her father left, and she doesn’t know when or if he will return to live with her and her mother. Mira and Gili defy their parents’ orders and listen to a propaganda radio station that broadcasts out of Cairo. The Voice of Thunder station lends its name to the title of the book and unnerves the two girls with its endless threats. When bombs begin to fall in Israel, the girls must make a harrowing escape from school. Later, after they’ve made it home, they take shelter in the basement with the rest of the residents of their apartment building. There, several days later, they learn via the radio of the reopening of the Western Wall to the people of Israel; on the following Sabbath, Miri and Gili travel to the wall with Gili’s parents and Mira’s father. Breen adeptly juxtaposes the ordinary events of day-to-day life with the more dramatic events of a country on the brink of—and later entering—war. Told in the third person, the novel follows Miri’s story from a somewhat distant remove, though her occasional diary entries help show her own perspective. The language is suitable for elementary school readers, with unfamiliar terms and Hebrew words defined within the text. Though the narrative often attempts to give the dialogue a natural feel, sometimes the efforts to mimic human speech make for awkward reading; for instance, Mira says, “You can’t save—fix the whole world,” and later, she asks, “Just wondering how come, well—why didn’t you ask that there be no war?”
The readable style capably delivers a history lesson likely unfamiliar to young readers.Pub Date: Aug. 14, 2012
ISBN: 978-1937178178
Page Count: 118
Publisher: WiDo Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Share your opinion of this book
by Trudy C. Hart ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A
Worthy for inclusion in studies of pioneer days and the westward expansion of the United States.
An illustrated children’s western adventure story brings little-known events of the late 1800s into the present day.
The fifth picture book in a series about a pair of young brothers finds Bryn and Bryce Chance celebrating a birthday with a horseback ride across a rocky western trail, as author Hart (The Chance Brothers Ride to the Rescue, 2007, etc.) imagines a new adventure for her own sons in their home territory of northwestern Oklahoma. As they follow Outlaw Trail, named for notorious real-life horse thief and bank robber Dick Yeager, to its end at the outlaw’s alleged cave hideout, the boys experience the region’s landscape and wildlife. Surprises lurk around every turn as the boys and their horses are startled by a turkey, a coyote and fragile canyon edges. Educational opportunities abound in the geological features of the region, and discussion of isinglass is woven into the story, although Hart omits the risk and amazement of climbing a canyon trail. When the narrow trail crumbles, creating a chasm and separating them from their guide, the surprisingly unperturbed boys calmly continue alone and, narrowly escaping a rockslide in the outlaw’s cave, discover with excitement what Yeager left behind. This tale might be of special interest to readers from the region, who may be interested in seeking out this trail and learning about its historical background. The book’s illustrations are bright but rather one-dimensional and appear to be computer-aided. The Chance Brothers will mostly appeal to beginning readers due to the simplicity of the story, though it suffers from a lack of character development. The basis of the story on actual places and events creates opportunities for further reading and discussion by children and adults.
Worthy for inclusion in studies of pioneer days and the westward expansion of the United States.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-419-68642-9
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Share your opinion of this book
by Eve Bunting ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1999
Bunting (I Have an Olive Tree, p. 719, etc.) once again explores larger themes through a quiet family story. Every October, on Lady Liberty’s birthday, Tony and his extended family have a picnic on Liberty Island. The family rendezvous at Battery Park to take the ferry out to the island. Waiting in line, Tony, who thinks the picnic is pretty corny, is approached by a woman, obviously a new immigrant. She gestures her alarm when the ferry departs without her; she is soothed when Tony motions that the ferry will return. Once on the island, Tony’s family has the picnic before toasting the statue and blowing kisses to her. Later, Tony spies the woman he had helped earlier, and the way they look up at the statue, “so still, so respectful, so . . . so peaceful, makes me choke up.” This sense of refuge drifts through Bunting’s text, as fundamental and natural an element of life as are the everyday incidentals she braids into the story and all of which are exquisitely caught by Carpenter’s vivid illustrations. (Picture book. 5-10)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-15-201656-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
Share your opinion of this book
More by Eve Bunting
BOOK REVIEW
by Eve Bunting ; illustrated by Jui Ishida
BOOK REVIEW
by Eve Bunting ; illustrated by Kevin Zimmer
BOOK REVIEW
by Eve Bunting ; illustrated by Will Hillenbrand
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
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.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.