Bial follows up his successful Where Lincoln Walked (1997) with a companion volume on the first president’s peregrinations, with significantly less success. The slim offering is necessarily light on the text, painting with broad strokes Washington’s career and offsetting the text with photographs of the places its subject lived and campaigned. The paucity of information on Washington’s youth is ruefully acknowledged and quickly dispatched as the narrative moves on to his military career. Unfortunately, this limitation leaches from this account what was so effective for child readers in the earlier work: the focus on the great man’s childhood. Some of the photographs appear out of sync with the text; the worst instance features photographs of the New York tavern where he bade his officers farewell in 1783 even as the text describes his weary retreat to Mount Vernon in 1797. Furthermore, a reliance on mythmaking paintings does nothing to separate fact from fiction for young readers. Even the backmatter suffers by comparison to the earlier work, omitting as it does the map of its subject’s travels. A disappointment. (bibliography, further reading, places to visit) (Nonfiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-8027-8899-8
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Walker
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2004
Categories: CHILDREN'S HISTORY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL SCIENCES
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Find something to do in every state in the U.S.A.!
This guide highlights a location of interest within each of the states, therefore excluding Washington, D.C., and the territories. Trivia about each location is scattered across crisply rendered landscapes that background each state’s double-page spread while diminutive, diverse characters populate the scenes. Befitting the title, one “adventure” is presented per state, such as shrimping in Louisiana’s bayous, snowshoeing in Connecticut, or celebrating the Fourth of July in Boston. While some are stereotypical gimmes (surfing in California), others have the virtue of novelty, at least for this audience, such as viewing the sandhill crane migration in Nebraska. Within this thematic unity, some details go astray, and readers may find themselves searching in vain for animals mentioned. The trivia is plentiful but may be misleading, vague, or incorrect. Information about the Native American peoples of the area is often included, but its brevity—especially regarding sacred locations—means readers are floundering without sufficient context. The same is true for many of the facts that relate directly to expansion and colonialism, such as the unexplained near extinction of bison. Describing the genealogical oral history of South Carolina’s Gullah community as “spin[ning] tales” is equally brusque and offensive. The book tries to do a lot, but it is more style than substance, which may leave readers bored, confused, slightly annoyed—or all three. (This book was reviewed digitally with 12.2-by-20.2-inch double-page spreads viewed at 80% of actual size.)
Go adventuring with a better guide. (tips on local adventuring, index) (Nonfiction. 8-10)Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-7112-5445-9
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Wide Eyed Editions
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
Categories: CHILDREN'S SOCIAL SCIENCES
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BOOK REVIEW
Author Leavitt presents all the components of doing research into family history with easy-to-follow directions for a successful project.
The volume begins with clear definitions about genealogy and why it is important to study. It moves on to give practical tips on getting started and how to map a family tree. It introduces young readers to the important documents that can assist in gathering family facts and describes the information they provide. It gives solid directions for setting up interviews with family members and how to reach out to those who are far away. This is followed up with strategies for using online resources, including warnings on how to stay safe on social media. The work of tracing ancestors from their countries of origin can be daunting, but Leavitt gives some help in this area as well and explores the role geography can play in family stories. There is good advice for collecting oral histories, and the chapter on exploring “The Way They Were” will appeal to many, as will the concluding chapters on family reunions and keeping in touch. All of this is presented in an encouraging, upbeat tone. Sidebars, charts, illustrations, and photographs add to the accessibility. The major drawback is that it assumes a known biological lineage with heterosexual parentage; there is no mention of the unique issues adopted children and nontraditional families might have in trying to put some of the instructions into practice. A short section addresses the challenges that face African-American descendants of enslaved people.
A good if limited starting guide. (resources, index) (Nonfiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4549-2320-6
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2017
Categories: CHILDREN'S FAMILY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL SCIENCES
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