Part of a series, Once Upon America, that highlights various episodes in American history by creating fictionalized stories based on actual circumstances and events, Beautiful Land is a satisfying tale of a young girl's experiences during the Oklahoma Land Run of 1889. Twelve-year-old Annie Mae is so excited she can barely sleep; after two years of waiting (during which she, her father, and brother lived in a dugout), they are finally ready to start their journey to Oklahoma, where they will choose a plot of land on which to build a farm and a home. But things don't go as smoothly as Annie Mae would have wished: Their wagon gets stuck in mud; then it nearly pitches off a bridge and into a river. When they finally reach their destination, they encounter outlaws who try to bully them off land that is rightfully theirs. And to make matters even worse, her beloved Uncle Michael will barely even look at her since the death of her mother, as if he holds her responsible. Antle is skilled at weaving large historical events together with smaller, more personal ones to create a convincing story of American frontier life. Her affable style, the realistic dialogue, and lively pacing will make this a good first novel for many readers and an excellent history lesson for all of them. (Fiction. 7-11)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-670-85304-6
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1994
A fresh, if not quite as seamless, alternative to Robert D. and Daniel San Souci’s Song of Sedna (1981).
A popular Inuit cautionary legend, featuring a haughty young woman and a gruesome climactic twist.
Arnaq will accept no suitor, until a shaman sea bird disguised as a handsome young man sweeps her away with glittering promises to a wretched, reeking tent on a distant shore. When her father arrives to rescue her, the shaman raises such a storm that her terrified dad casts her overboard—and cuts off her fingers to keep her from holding on to the boat. Those fingers are transformed into whales and seals, and she, into a testy spirit named Nuliajuq, who calls up storms on all who “disrespect the land or the sea.” This and other modern-sounding lines (“Eventually Arnaq succumbed to complete depression”) give the otherwise formal narrative a playfully anachronistic air that may or may not be intentional. Lim illustrates the tale in a realistic rather than stylized way, using flowing lines and brush strokes to depict natural settings, faces, Arnaq’s lustrous locks (and, though seen only from a distance, fingerless hands), and a range of accurately detailed arctic and sea animals. In an afterword, the author explains that the sea spirit goes by several regional names; a pronunciation guide to Inuktitut words in this version is also included.
A fresh, if not quite as seamless, alternative to Robert D. and Daniel San Souci’s Song of Sedna (1981). (Picture book/folk tale. 7-9)Pub Date: March 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-927095-75-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Inhabit Media
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
A rare venture into contemporary fiction for Bruchac (The Circle of Thanks, p. 1529, etc.), this disappointing tale of a young Mohawk transplanted to Brooklyn, N.Y., is overstuffed with plotlines, lectures, and cultural information. Danny Bigtree gets jeers, or the cold shoulder, from his fourth-grade classmates, until his ironworker father sits him down to relate—at length- -the story of the great Mohawk peacemaker Aionwahta (Hiawatha), then comes to school to talk about the Iroquois Confederacy and its influence on our country's Founding Fathers. Later, Danny's refusal to tattle when Tyrone, the worst of his tormenters, accidentally hits him in the face with a basketball breaks the ice for good. Two sketchy subplots: Danny runs into an old Seminole friend, who, evidently due to parental neglect, has joined a gang; after dreaming of an eagle falling from a tree, Danny learns that his father has been injured in a construction- site accident. A worthy, well-written novella—but readers cannot be moved by a story that pulls them in so many different directions. (Fiction. 9-11)
Pub Date: March 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-8037-1918-3
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1996
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