In their first English translation, these reproduced pages from the journals of an award-winning Egyptian illustrator and art director will introduce a wise, engaging and creative spirit. Loosely grouped around the theme of what has inspired him, Ellabbad adds postcards, photos and small prints to his own cartoon drawings on each page, then fills the spaces with comments in Arabic script—either dashed off in crooked lines or more formally composed—that are translated in narrow columns to the side. He covers diverse topics, from the value of random souvenirs, or of just looking, to observing how illustrators in other countries have depicted cats, his childhood dreams (“I am very lucky to have found this career, because now I can draw myself as the streetcar driver I always wanted to be.”) and the beauties of Arabic bookmaking. That last is further evoked by the volume’s “back-to-front” design and right-to-left visual orientation. Really just a gathering of random remarks, this won’t draw a large audience, but it may spark an interest in what children in other countries read. (Nonfiction. 8-10)
Pub Date: April 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-88899-700-0
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
Ringgold’s biography of Rosa Parks packs substantial material into a few pages, but with a light touch, and with the ring of authenticity that gives her act of weary resistance all the respect it deserves. Narrating the book is the bus that Parks took that morning 45 years ago; it recounts the signal events in Parks’s life to a young girl who boarded it to go to school. A decent amount of the material will probably be new to children, for Parks is so intimately associated with the Montgomery Bus Boycott that her work with the NAACP before the bus incident is often overlooked, as is her later role as a community activist in Detroit with Congressman John Conyers. Ringgold, through the bus, also informs readers of Parks’s youth in rural Alabama, where Klansmen and nightriders struck fear into the lives of African-Americans. These experiences make her refusal to release her seat all the more courageous, for the consequences of resistance were not gentle. All the events are depicted in emotive naive artwork that underscores their truth; Ringgold delivers Parks’s story without hyperbole, but rather as a life lived with pride, conviction, and consequence. (Picture book/biography. 5-9)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-689-81892-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
From Kroll (Lewis and Clark, 1994, etc.), a handsomely illustrated biography that introduces a fascinating historical figure and will make readers yearn for more information. The facts are covered, including Fulton’s stints as sign painter, air-gun inventor, and apprentice jeweler; Kroll states clearly which details cannot be pinned down, and the probable order of events and incidents. The text is informative and lively, although in places the transitions are abrupt, e.g., one of the only references to Fulton’s personal life—“Meanwhile, on January 7, 1808, Fulton had married Harriet Livingston. She bore him four children”—quickly reverts to details on the building of boats. Warm gold-toned paintings convey a sense of times past and complement the text. Especially appealing are the depictions of the steamships. A welcome volume. (chronology) (Picture book/biography. 6-10)
Pub Date: March 15, 1999
ISBN: 0-8234-1433-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1999
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