A clever organization and nostalgic ink-and-watercolor illustrations cannot save this picture-book biography of one of the 20th century’s great men of letters. Eschewing a strictly chronological organization, this text instead juxtaposes a page of explicatory text about one aspect of Sandburg’s career against an illustration accompanied by an appropriate piece of Sandburg’s own writings. The spread covering “Carl’s” journalistic activities, for instance, features an excerpt from his essay on featuring Lincoln on the penny and a man-of-the people image of Lincoln with an axe. This organization serves the many talents and interests of its subject well, but sabotages it at the same time, as Niven’s narrative (rendered in an uncomfortably small typeface, given the format) pales by comparison to the vigor of Sandburg’s own writing. A timeline juxtaposing the events in Sandburg’s life against the historic changes in America during that same time is a nice feature, as are the notes on the illustrations. However, despite credits for Sandburg’s writings and many grateful acknowledgments, there is no indication of the written sources used for the primary text. (Picture book/biography. 6-9)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-15-204686-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2003
A dozen familiar dinosaurs introduce themselves in verse in this uninspired, if colorful, new animal gallery from the authors of Commotion in the Ocean (2000). Smiling, usually toothily, and sporting an array of diamonds, lightning bolts, spikes and tiger stripes, the garishly colored dinosaurs make an eye-catching show, but their comments seldom measure up to their appearance: “I’m a swimming reptile, / I dive down in the sea. / And when I spot a yummy squid, / I eat it up with glee!” (“Ichthyosaurus”) Next to the likes of Kevin Crotty’s Dinosongs (2000), illustrated by Kurt Vargo, or Jack Prelutsky’s classic Tyrannosaurus Was A Beast (1988), illustrated by Arnold Lobel, there’s not much here to roar about. (Picture book/poetry. 7-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 2005
ISBN: 1-58925-044-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2005
Spinning lively invented details around skimpy historical records, Taylor profiles the 19th-century chef credited with inventing the potato chip. Crum, thought to be of mixed Native-American and African-American ancestry, was a lover of the outdoors, who turned cooking skills learned from a French hunter into a kitchen job at an upscale resort in New York state. As the story goes, he fried up the first batch of chips in a fit of pique after a diner complained that his French fries were cut too thickly. Morrison’s schoolroom, kitchen and restaurant scenes seem a little more integrated than would have been likely in the 1850s, but his sinuous figures slide through them with exaggerated elegance, adding a theatrical energy as delicious as the snack food they celebrate. The author leaves Crum presiding over a restaurant (also integrated) of his own, closes with a note separating fact from fiction and also lists her sources. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: April 1, 2006
ISBN: 1-58430-255-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Lee & Low Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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