When railroads came into use in America in the 1830s, they were ``owned, built, and run by men.'' In 1838, the first women became employed by the railroads in domestic service jobs. Levinson (Snowshoe Thompson, 1992, etc.) portrays how, through talent and perseverance, women have advanced to become welders, engineers, and executives on the railroads, despite resistance from men. Women were considered ``bargains'' because they were ``honest, productive, dependable, and accepted low pay.'' Readers will learn about Ella Campbell, a brass pounder (telegraph operator) in the 1870s who helped to head off a train collision; how Ida Hewitt, the first female locomotive engineer in the US, learned the job by riding along with her father; how, in 1901, Sarah Clark Kidder became president of the Nevada County Narrow Gauge to become the first woman to head a railroad company. The black-and-white archival and contemporary photographs add excitement to this remarkable, unusual history. (b&w photos, notes, glossary, further reading, index) (Nonfiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-525-67545-0
Page Count: 104
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1997
In this rich, insightful memoir, Molnar offers a child’s-eye view of life in Romania in the late 1950s. Known as Eva Zimmerman then, she lived in a crowded but loving Bucharest home that included her parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. They are a lively, eccentric bunch brought vividly to life in a simple first-person, present-tense narration. Especially endearing is Eva’s relationship with her grandfather, who encourages her to embrace her Jewish heritage. Her cinematographer father, a survivor of several concentration camps who lost his parents to the Holocaust, is haunted by his experiences. Eva learns from her grandmother the complicity of Romania’s World War II fascist regime in the murder of thousands of Jews. With anti-Semitism still pervasive in Communist Romania, Eva keeps her Jewish identity secret from classmates when she begins school. The author vividly depicts the harsh realities of life under fascist rule: scarcity of food and housing, ideological indoctrination in school and constant fear of the Securitate, the secret police who are always watching and listening. Black-and-white family photographs illustrate this poignant, memorable memoir. (Memoir. 10-14)
Pub Date: April 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-374-31840-6
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Frances Foster/Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Review Posted Online: Jan. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2010
After years of normal living, a teenager learns he has epilepsy and has to cope not just with the disease, but with the side effects, including the hostility of his peers. High schooler Lefty has an epileptic seizure while hanging out with his best friend, Reuben, and must subsequently learn to live with the disease, deal with medication, make lifestyle changes, overcome his own fear, as well as that of family and friends, and face his peers. What little action there is in this marathon talkfest concerns Lefty and his friends (including his 12-year-old brother) smoking and drinking. In his tough, working-class neighborhood this is considered perfectly normal, and the author never counters that. Most of readers’ efforts may be spent trying to keep track of the many characters: Lefty’s friends and brothers, his mother’s tough-as-nails girlfriends, neighbors, classmates, medical personnel, etc. When Lefty, a budding writer, pens an imaginary dialogue between two elderly neighbors and a would-be mugger, the story picks up; otherwise this is a flat and emotionally distant bull session that, though extended, leads nowhere. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2000
ISBN: 1-55143-166-1
Page Count: 215
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2000
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