A fine tribute to an unsung African-American hero. (Picture book. 3-7)
An almost-true story of a man who loved his job and did it well.
In this colorful mélange of fact and fiction, Bildner tells the tale of Cornelius Washington, a sanitation worker who cleans the streets of the French Quarter of New Orleans and performs his job with flair. Cornelius does flips, lobs bags of trash into his garbage truck as if shooting hoops in the gym, makes trash-can lids into cymbals, and entertains locals while making the streets sparkle. Hurricane Katrina changes all of that, leaving trash, death, and decay in its wake, “a gumbo of mush and mud.” After weeping for his city, Cornelius joins forces with his neighbors and the waves of people who come to New Orleans post-Katrina from all over to help make New Orleans sparkle once again. Parra’s lively, rustic illustrations look textured, as if they were painted on wooden boards—appropriate for a book that depicts only outdoor scenes. Notably, the images of the French Quarter post-Katrina suggest a much more diverse population than those of pre-Katrina New Orleans; perhaps some who came to help stayed. The illustrator fills every page with activity, while the text comments on individual people readers can find if they look.
A fine tribute to an unsung African-American hero. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2578-7
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Skip.
The ever-popular pioneering female pilot gets a breezy and very incomplete biography.
Meltzer gives Amelia a first-person voice and, in a very sketchy narrative laced with comic-book speech bubbles, presents her as a dare-devil tomboy. The flying bug hits her when she goes up for a flight with Frank Hawks at the age of 23. She tries her hand at different jobs to earn money for flying lessons; Meltzer, writing too glibly, calls stenography, one of those failed efforts, a “fancy-schmancy word.” As Amelia makes her solo trans-Atlantic flight, she shouts, “This is AWESOME!”—a word no doubt intended to resonate with contemporary readers but unlikely to have occurred to Earhart at the moment. The text concludes with an exhortation to “Never let anyone stop you. / Whatever your dream is, chase it. / Work hard for it.” There is nary a mention of her final, disastrous around-the-world flight and disappearance over the Pacific. Eliopoulos’ digitally rendered art is cartoon in style, with Earhart resembling a bobblehead doll and wearing an aviator hat and goggles. The audience for this mixed-up comic/bio is not at all clear. Given its incomplete information and lack of source material (an actual quote from Earhart is unreferenced), there is no justifying calling it a biography. Nor is there enough entertainment to call this a comic book.
Skip. (photographs) (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-8037-4082-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2013
A memorable life—a forgettable presentation.
Baseball’s No. 42 strikes out.
Even as a babe in his mother’s arms, Robinson is depicted wearing his Brooklyn Dodgers baseball cap in this latest entry in the Ordinary People Change the World series. He narrates his childhood alongside cartoon panels that show him as an expert runner and thrower. Racism and poverty are also part of his growing up, along with lessons in sharing and courage. Incredibly, the Negro Leagues are not mentioned beyond a passing reference to “a black team” with a picture of the Kansas City Monarchs next to their team bus (still looking like a child in the illustration, Robinson whines, “Gross! Is this food or goo?”). In 1946, Branch Rickey signs him to play for the Dodgers’ farm team, and the rest, as they say, is history. Robinson concludes his story with an exhortation to readers to be brave, strong and use their “power to do what’s right. / Use that power for a cause that you believe in.” Meltzer writes his inspirational biography as a first-person narrative, which risks being construed and used as an autobiography—which it is not. The digitally rendered cartoon illustrations that show Robinson as a perpetual child fall sadly short of capturing his demeanor and prowess.
A memorable life—a forgettable presentation. (photographs, timeline, sources, further reading) (Picture book/biography. 3-6)Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8037-4086-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2014
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