Vote—but not for this candidate.
A mouse with a smile as wide as Ike’s and outstretched arms as expansive as Nixon’s runs a successful campaign for the presidency.
Woodrow G. Washingtail of Moussouri, born with a political spoon in his teeth, grows up to be an “all-American mouse of renown” and marries his Bess. He leads an exemplary small-town life, runs for town council, mayor, state senate and “governor of the whole state!” He then declares his candidacy for the nation’s “Big Cheese” as the choice of the Bull Mouse party. The husband-and-wife writing and illustrating team go on to describe the entire presidential campaign process, with information on political parties, primaries, debates, conventions, campaigns and inauguration. Woodrow is, of course, elected as “the hope of all mice, the hope of a nation” after an all-around clean and wholesome crusade. The entire “tail” is written in quatrains with an AABB rhyming scheme. Unfortunately, maintaining this structure often leads to awkward scanning and phrasing. A surfeit of puns wears thin, as Hairry King conducts an interview, Mousechusetts attends the National Convention and Senator Ed Mouse-ski debates. Amateurishly drawn full-page cartoon illustrations owe much to Richard Scarry, but are crowded and too full of toothy smiles.
Vote—but not for this candidate. (resources for parents and teachers, additional information and activities, reproducible “contract to vote.”) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: May 21, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-59698-786-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little Patriot Press
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
Both a beautiful celebration of black culture and an excellent first black history book for young children.
A young black child ponders the colors in the rainbow and a crayon box and realizes that while black is not a color in the rainbow, black culture is a rainbow of its own.
In bright paints and collage, Holmes shows the rainbow of black skin tones on each page while Joy’s text describes what “Black is” physically and culturally. It ranges from the concrete, such as “the braids in my best friend’s hair,” to the conceptual: “Black is soft-singing, ‘Hush now, don’t explain’ ”—a reference to the song “Don’t Explain” made popular by Billie Holiday and Nina Simone, the former depicted in full song with her signature camellia and the latter at her piano. Joy alludes throughout the brief text to poetry, music, figures, and events in black history, and several pages of backmatter supply the necessary context for caregivers who need a little extra help explaining them to listeners. Additionally, there is a playlist of songs to accompany reading as well as three poems: “Harlem,” by Langston Hughes, and “We Wear the Mask” and “Sympathy,” by Paul Laurence Dunbar. The author also includes a historical timeline describing some of the names that have been used to describe and label black people in the United States since 1619.
Both a beautiful celebration of black culture and an excellent first black history book for young children. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-62672-631-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A life devoted to freedom and dignity, worthy of praise and remembrance.
With the words of Massachusetts colonial rebels ringing in her ears, a slave determines to win her freedom.
In 1780, Mumbet heard the words of the new Massachusetts constitution, including its declaration of freedom and equality. With the help of a young lawyer, she went to court and the following year, won her freedom, becoming Elizabeth Freeman. Slavery was declared illegal and subsequently outlawed in the state. Woelfle writes with fervor as she describes Mumbet’s life in the household of John Ashley, a rich landowner and businessman who hosted protest meetings against British taxation. His wife was abrasive and abusive, striking out with a coal shovel at a young girl, possibly Mumbet’s daughter. Mumbet deflected the blow and regarded the wound as “her badge of bravery.” Ironically, the lawyer who took her case, Theodore Sedgwick, had attended John Ashley’s meetings. Delinois’ full-bleed paintings are heroic in scale, richly textured and vibrant. Typography becomes part of the page design as the font increases when the text mentions freedom. Another slave in the Ashley household was named in the court case, but Woelfle, keeping her young audience in mind, keeps it simple, wisely focusing on Mumbet.
A life devoted to freedom and dignity, worthy of praise and remembrance. (author’s note, selected bibliography, further reading) (Picture book/biography. 5-8)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7613-6589-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Carolrhoda
Review Posted Online: Oct. 8, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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