A handsome overview, parochial for all its chronological scope.
Carried along on a broad ribbon of time that winds across oversized spreads, thousands of small images re-enact the human story.
Goes, a Belgian illustrator, begins with the Big Bang, but by the fifth spread, Lucy is peeking from behind a tree as Neanderthals stroll through a torch-lit cave. From there, each page turn offers a panoramic view of a whole civilization up through the Middle Ages, a single century from the 14th to the 19th, decades or half-decades post–World War I, and finally a glimpse of the “2010s” that ends with the Charlie Hebdo massacre. Now and then such diversions as “The Aztecs” or “Space travel” offer pauses in the march. The book is highly selective with both the hordes of stylized but recognizable artifacts and historical figures and the buckets of specific facts and dates scattered throughout. Still, the artist resorts to such extremes of compression that Native American cultures are largely distilled to a cluster of teepees around a totem pole near some buffalo, and one crowd listens to both Jimi Hendrix and “black religious leader” Martin Luther King Jr. while watching JFK motor and singing anti-war songs. It’s an ingenious use of space—but with few exceptions, the world beyond Europe and North America barely figures. The absence of an index makes this a browsing item rather than a resource.
A handsome overview, parochial for all its chronological scope. (Nonfiction. 9-12)Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-776570-69-0
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Gecko Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
After surveying “competing claims” for the first Thanksgiving from 1541 on, in Texas, Florida, Maine, Virginia and Massachusetts, Colman decides in favor of the 1621 event with the English colonists and Wampanoag as the first “because the 1621 event was more like the Thanksgiving that we celebrate today.” She demonstrates, however, that the “Pilgrim and Indian” story is really not the antecedent of Thanksgiving as we celebrate it today. Rather, two very old traditions—harvest festivals and days of thanksgiving for special events—were the origin, and this interesting volume traces how the custom of proclaiming a general day of thanksgiving took hold. Yet, since many Thanksgiving celebrations in towns and schools are still rooted in the “Pilgrim and Indian” story, which the author calls “true and important,” but which many Native Americans find objectionable, a more in-depth discussion of it is warranted here. The solid bibliography does include some fine resources, such as 1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving (2001) by Catherine O’Neill Grace and Margaret M. Bruchac. (author’s note, chronology, index) (Nonfiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8050-8229-6
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This sophisticated contender in the graphic nonfiction market opens with “The Story So Far,” setting the stage for the events that led to the bloody Civil War battle at Gettysburg. Clearly defined art and sharply delineated panels portray all of the horrors of battle: the numerous casualties, both human and animal, the impromptu and severely unhygienic operating rooms and the impact that this event had on those who lived there. A vast cast of characters—an even and improbable dozen—introduced early on does little to help readers follow the action. Rather, this feature obfuscates things, as many of the men have similar looks, varying only slightly in their coiffed hair or a hat and a mustache. It shines in its closing pages, compressing Edward Everett’s two-hour speech into a few panels and giving Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address a good 20 pages to make itself felt. Undoubtedly smarter and more astute than many of its graphic-nonfiction counterparts, this book should speak to those seeking a visual account. (map, author’s notes; footnotes, bibliography, not seen) (Graphic nonfiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-06-156176-4
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Bowen Press/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
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