A stirring example of “grace under fire” (writes the author, mangling another meme), commemorated in rhapsodic but not...
A tribute to Wallace Hartley, the bandleader who played on as the RMS Titanic was sinking.
When young Jonathan complains that piano practice is “sissy stuff,” his grandfather responds with the tale of how, as a 9-year-old stowaway on the Titanic, he was taken in by the friendly Hartley—who was so impressed by the lad’s talent that he arranged an onboard audition before John Jacob Astor that later led to a life in music. First, though, comes that night to remember (or as Polacco unoriginally puts it, a “date that would live in infamy”), with its rending collision, general panic…and tearful separation as the child reluctantly boards a lifeboat while Hartley remains on deck, playing “Nearer, My God, to Thee” for those doomed to stay behind. “Can you imagine the majesty and harrowing strength…the limitless bravery in that man’s heart,” the storyteller declaims. The musicians who, with like courage, joined Hartley on that fateful night are just dim figures in the background, but the illustrations bring the disaster’s terror and tragedy into sharp focus on the expressive faces of the young stowaway and other passengers and crew (all white). Readers will come away appreciating Hartley’s fortitude and may be equally moved by the closing note (with photos) that his violin, miraculously, was later recovered along with his body.
A stirring example of “grace under fire” (writes the author, mangling another meme), commemorated in rhapsodic but not unsuitable language. (Picture book. 7-10)Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4814-9461-8
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
Thompson uses the time of the Roman Empire as the setting for another horse story for younger readers (Highway Robbery, 2009). Young Marcus recounts the adventure that begins when a hurried slave abruptly turns over care of Emperor Caligula's horse, "Consul" Incitatus, to him. Although there's an undeniable thrill to having the responsibility for such a fine steed, Marcus, a baker's boy, is all too aware of the consequences that could befall his entire family if he should manage this wrong. But he's clever, resourceful and observant, and by paying attention to all the clues of daily life, he manages beautifully. The short page count, fast-paced plot and spot illustrations (not seen) should make this a great title for readers not yet ready for longer fiction. Although Marcus is not quite as unreliable as the earlier book’s narrator, this tale is significantly more sophisticated in both writing and plot than the common chapter-book ruck. Horse lovers will appreciate Incitatus’s horse sense, and fans of such other wily protagonists as Moxy Maxwell and Ivy + Bean will cheer Marcus’s solution. (Historical fiction. 8-10)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-06-173037-5
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2010
An immensely popular figure in his day, the Brazilian-born Alberto Santos-Dumont invented a personal dirigible that he...
So the Wright Brothers were the first to fly? Au contraire, asserts Griffith in this rare portrait of a little-known (in this country, at least) early aviator.
An immensely popular figure in his day, the Brazilian-born Alberto Santos-Dumont invented a personal dirigible that he steered around the Eiffel Tower and drove out to run errands. Griffith’s prose isn’t always polished (“If Blériot succeeded to fly first….”), but her narrative makes her subject’s stature clear as she takes him from a luncheon with jeweler Louis Cartier, who invented the wristwatch to help his friend keep track of his time in the air, to his crowning aeronautical achievement in 1906: He beat out both the secretive Wrights and pushy rival Louis Blériot as the first to fly an aircraft that could take off and land on its own power. The author covers his career in more detail in a closing note (with photos), ascribing his eventual suicide in part to remorse that, instead of ushering in an era of peace as he had predicted, aircraft were being used in warfare. Montanari’s genteel pastel-and-chalk pictures of turn-of-the-20th-century Paris and Parisians don’t capture how much larger than life Santos-Dumont was, but they do succeed in helping Griffith bring him to American audiences.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4197-0011-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2011
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