WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST AND THE AMERICAN CENTURY

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WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST AND THE AMERICAN CENTURY

Name: WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST AND THE AMERICAN CENTURY
Author: Nancy Whitelaw
ISBN: 1-883846-46-3

by Nancy Whitelaw ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 10, 1999

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The latest entry in the Makers of the Media Series is the story of a spoiled, rich child who grew up to be the king of “yellow journalism.” Whitelaw (Joseph Pulitzer and the New York World, p. 637, etc.) is balanced in her presentation, showing Hearst with all his warts, but allowing for the improvements he made in the newspaper business. Born into a wealthy family whose mother adored and indulged him and whose father ignored him, Willie flunked out of Harvard and ultimately went to work for his father’s newspaper, the San Francisco Examiner. He used the newspaper to influence politics and thought nothing of creating stories when he could not uncover the facts. Some of his ruthlessness and single-mindedness is glossed over, e.g., mentioned is the speculation that he was the model for Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane, but not Hearst’s attempts to thwart the film. The title is a misnomer, since Hearst died in 1951, with the second half of the “American Century” hardly underway. In fact, this is a perfunctory treatment of his life, a bland source for those doing research, unlikely to inspire further inquiry. (b&w photos, chronology, bibliography, index) (Biography. 12-14)

Pub Date: Sept. 10, 1999

ISBN: 1-883846-46-3

Page Count: 112

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR

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LET'S GO! LET'S PUBLISH!
by Nancy Whitelaw

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BRAM STOKER
by Nancy Whitelaw

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THEODORE ROOSEVELT TAKES CHARGE
by Nancy Whitelaw

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ALL BY HERSELF

POEMS

by Ann Whitford Paul ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1999

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Prose poems celebrate the feats of young heroines, some of them famous, and some not as well-known. Paul (Hello Toes! Hello Feet!, 1998, etc.) recounts moments in the lives of women such as Rachel Carson, Amelia Earhart, and Wilma Rudolph; these moments don’t necessarily reflect what made them famous as much as they are pivotal events in their youth that influenced the direction of their lives. For Earhart, it was sliding down the roof of the tool shed in a home-made roller coaster: “It’s like flying!” For Rudolph, it was the struggle to learn to walk without her foot brace. Other women, such as Violet Sheehy, who rescued her family from a fire in Hinckley, Minnesota, or Harriet Hanson, a union supporter in the fabric mills of Massachusetts, are celebrated for their brave decisions made under extreme duress. Steirnagle’s sweeping paintings powerfully exude the strength of character exhibited by these young women. A commemorative book, that honors both quiet and noisy acts of heroism. (Picture book/poetry. 6-9)

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-15-201477-2

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S POETRY | CHILDREN'S BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR

- BOOK REVIEW
IF ANIMALS CELEBRATED EASTER
by Ann Whitford Paul ; illustrated by David Walker

- BOOK REVIEW
IF ANIMALS TRICK-OR-TREATED
by Ann Whitford Paul ; illustrated by David Walker

- BOOK REVIEW
WHO LOVES LITTLE LEMUR?
by Ann Whitford Paul ; illustrated by Jay Fleck

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IF A BUS COULD TALK

THE STORY OF ROSA PARKS

by Faith Ringgold ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1999

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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)