Bang (Common Ground: The Water, Earth and Air We Share, 1997) tells it like it is in this frank, if kaleidoscopic, account of a Texas shrimper’s conversion to environmental activism. Diane Wilson’s decade-long struggle with the chemical companies that made her county the number-one polluter in the entire country for toxic discharge is very much a David-and-Goliath tale. Ranged against her were not only the slick and tricky minions of huge multinational corporations, but much of her own community, and even the EPA, which judged the Formosa Plastics Corporation’s proposal to build seven factories in the area likely to have “No Significant Impact” on the local environment. Bang has not made this easy to read—Wilson’s story is told in black and white collages of graphic-novel style panels, documents, and photographs, all inset over a labeled, painted survey of the bay’s environmental and industrial history. It’s an intriguing style, raising the age level of the intended audience while keeping the look of a picture book. But budding activists will find plenty to ponder in seeing how this seemingly ordinary woman first educated herself on the issues, then experienced the often-scary realities of nonviolent resistance. It’s an inspiring, and ongoing, saga, well worth struggling through, and its format may help to bring it to otherwise disinterested readers. (Picture book/nonfiction. 11+)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-8050-5396-4
Page Count: 46
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This bittersweet tale takes readers into a dark, ancient woods in the American Northwest. A father and son make this forest their special place to commune with the wild, to visit with the creatures that live therein, and to revel in the mesmerizing views. One day they find spots painted on the trees, markings for loggers. The boy and his father and family ignite a small grassroots resistance to the felling of the trees. They fight for something they believe in—it is almost a sacred obligation for them—but they are unsuccessful: the laws governing private property prevail. The trees are cut and, luckily, the father and son find another stand in which to take solace. The Rands (A Home for Spooky, 1998, etc.) offer a bright fusion of the cautionary and the inspirational, and the artwork is effective in conveying the outsized majesty of the old growth. (Picture book. 6-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-8050-5466-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1999
A picture book combines the exuberance of children and the drama found in nature for a sly lesson on power-sharing. Henderson (Newborn, 1999, etc.) lands on the wide reaches of a windy beach where young Jim expansively flings wide his arms and claims “All this is mine!” So it seems until the wind blows in a gale so violent that it smashes objects and tears “through the dreams of people sleeping.” An eerie series of black-and-white paintings shows the white-capped waves breaking ever higher and crashing inland; these are so frightening that Jim cries out to his mother, “The sea! It’s coming!” Happily enough, Jim and his mother are able to run up the hill to a grandmother’s house where they weather the storm safely. The next time Jim speaks to the wind, on a much quieter beach, he whispers, “All this is yours.” Large type, appealing pastel illustrations, and a dose of proper perspective on humankind’s power over nature make this book a fine choice for story hours as well as nature collections. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-7636-0904-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1999
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