It’s not the most dramatic version, but it’s a visually effective and serviceable addition to the rapidly growing shelf of...
A 50th-anniversary commemoration of the epochal Apollo 11 mission.
Modeling her account on “The House That Jack Built” (an unspoken, appropriate nod to President John F. Kennedy’s foundational role in the enterprise), Greene takes Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins from liftoff to post-splashdown ticker-tape parade. Side notes on some spreads and two pages of further facts with photographs at the end, all in smaller type, fill in select details about the mission and its historical context. The rhymed lines are fully cumulated only once, so there is some repetition but never enough to grow monotonous: “This is the Moon, a mysterious place, / a desolate land in the darkness of space, / far from Earth with oceans blue.” Also, the presentation of the text in just three or fewer lines per spread stretches out the narrative and gives Brundage latitude for both formal and informal group portraits of Apollo 11’s all-white crew, multiple glimpses of our planet and the moon at various heights, and, near the end, atmospheric (so to speak) views of the abandoned lander and boot prints in the lunar dust.
It’s not the most dramatic version, but it’s a visually effective and serviceable addition to the rapidly growing shelf of tributes to our space program’s high-water mark. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: March 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-58536-412-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
A unique angle on a watershed moment in the civil rights era.
The New Orleans school child who famously broke the color line in 1960 while surrounded by federal marshals describes the early days of her experience from a 6-year-old’s perspective.
Bridges told her tale to younger children in 2009’s Ruby Bridges Goes to School, but here the sensibility is more personal, and the sometimes-shocking historical photos have been replaced by uplifting painted scenes. “I didn’t find out what being ‘the first’ really meant until the day I arrived at this new school,” she writes. Unfrightened by the crowd of “screaming white people” that greets her at the school’s door (she thinks it’s like Mardi Gras) but surprised to find herself the only child in her classroom, and even the entire building, she gradually realizes the significance of her act as (in Smith’s illustration) she compares a small personal photo to the all-White class photos posted on a bulletin board and sees the difference. As she reflects on her new understanding, symbolic scenes first depict other dark-skinned children marching into classes in her wake to friendly greetings from lighter-skinned classmates (“School is just school,” she sensibly concludes, “and kids are just kids”) and finally an image of the bright-eyed icon posed next to a soaring bridge of reconciliation. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A unique angle on a watershed moment in the civil rights era. (author and illustrator notes, glossary) (Autobiographical picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-75388-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
Graphite wizardry notwithstanding, a showcase or keepsake with more personal than general meaning.
In a series of atmospheric tableaux, the distinguished Canadian author/illustrator portrays mementos and images from visits to each province and territory over his long career.
U.S. and perhaps even Canadian children are going to need the descriptive notes he tacks on at the end, because without labels, the folk dolls, hand-carved animals, and other small items on display have no context beyond an occasional place name. (This lack really comes home to roost with the Yukon spread’s ordinary-looking tobacco tin—which contains, Wallace assures us, the “infamous ingredient” in a “sourtoe cocktail.”) Signaling that the “cabinet” is at least partly imaginary, shelves turn into landscapes or assemblages of images as the survey progresses, and Wallace caps his notes with a self-portrait that makes the notion explicit. Finally, though the results are technically masterful, pencil may not have been the best choice for the art, as a silhouette representing the author’s well-traveled red sneakers and a red Chinese money envelope are both monochrome, and he makes much of a fan letter decorated with a rainbow that, here, is just a set of barely distinguishable gray stripes.
Graphite wizardry notwithstanding, a showcase or keepsake with more personal than general meaning. (introduction) (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-55498-922-5
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
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