A slender gathering—and small of trim size, too—but mighty in uplift and visual appeal.
A wee photo album pairing insights and exhortations from young people with pictures of budding activists on the march.
The photos are sandwiched between eloquent statements from Bob Bland, co-chair of the 2017 Women’s March on Washington, and Lynda Blackmon Lowery, who turned 15 marching with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to Selma. They feature individual children from preteens down to toddlers participating in recent protests. Most are carrying signs—some of which they plainly made themselves—conveying a range of slogans from pointed (“IMMIGRANTS: We Get THE JOB DONE”) to cute (“i [heart] naps but i STAY WOKE”). One sign is in Spanish, and throughout, both the children and the grown-ups around them are racially diverse. Along with simply phrased interpolations, such as definitions of “Activism” and “Democracy,” short quotes on the facing pages from writers 14 or younger, identified by first names only, range from affirmations of self and gender to anti-bullying sentiments and general urgings to be a change-maker. A teen’s cogent “Speak the truth, even if your voice shakes,” closes this well-knit call to action. A small portion of the proceeds will go to the Children’s Defense Fund.
A slender gathering—and small of trim size, too—but mighty in uplift and visual appeal. (Picture book. 6-10)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-451-47854-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute.
Readers bid farewell to a beloved canine character.
Momo is—or was—an adorable and very photogenic border collie owned by author Knapp. The many readers who loved him in the previous half-dozen books are in for a shock with this one. “Momo had died” is the stark reality—and there are no photographs of him here. Instead, Momo has been replaced by a flat cartoonish pastiche with strange, staring round white eyes, inserted into some of Knapp’s photography (which remains appealing, insofar as it can be discerned under the mixed media). Previous books contained few or no words. Unfortunately, virtuosity behind a lens does not guarantee mastery of verse. The art here is accompanied by words that sometimes rhyme but never find a workable or predictable rhythm (“We’d fetch and we’d catch, / we’d run and we’d jump. Every day we found new / games to play”). It’s a pity, because the subject—a pet’s death—is an important one to address with children. Of course, Momo isn’t gone; he can still be found “everywhere” in memories. But alas, he can be found here only in the crude depictions of the darling dog so well known from the earlier books.
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781683693864
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet and endearing feathered migration.
A relationship between a Latina grandmother and her mixed-race granddaughter serves as the frame to depict the ruby-throated hummingbird migration pattern.
In Granny’s lap, a girl is encouraged to “keep still” as the intergenerational pair awaits the ruby-throated hummingbirds with bowls of water in their hands. But like the granddaughter, the tz’unun—“the word for hummingbird in several [Latin American] languages”—must soon fly north. Over the next several double-page spreads, readers follow the ruby-throated hummingbird’s migration pattern from Central America and Mexico through the United States all the way to Canada. Davies metaphorically reunites the granddaughter and grandmother when “a visitor from Granny’s garden” crosses paths with the girl in New York City. Ray provides delicately hashed lines in the illustrations that bring the hummingbirds’ erratic flight pattern to life as they travel north. The watercolor palette is injected with vibrancy by the addition of gold ink, mirroring the hummingbirds’ flashing feathers in the slants of light. The story is supplemented by notes on different pages with facts about the birds such as their nest size, diet, and flight schedule. In addition, a note about ruby-throated hummingbirds supplies readers with detailed information on how ornithologists study and keep track of these birds.
A sweet and endearing feathered migration. (bibliography, index) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0538-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
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