by Rik Hoskin ; illustrated by Aadil Khan ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 8, 2019
A passable introduction to the life of Shah Jahan for lovers of history.
Gives readers a glimpse into the story behind one of the world’s most famous monuments and oldest romances—Mumtaz Mahal’s tomb, the Taj Mahal—and the people who built it.
A flashback to 1592 reveals a soothsayer informing the empress of the Mughal Empire that a child destined for greatness will be born into the royal family. Shahab-ud-din Muhammad Khurram is raised by his grandfather, the Emperor Jalal-ud-in Akbar, and Akbar’s first wife, the Empress Ruqaiya Sultan Begum. At the age of 15, Khurram meets and falls in love with Arjumand Banu Begum. Following the soothsayer’s words, Khurram—who later becomes the fifth Mughal Emperor, Shah Jahan—waits 5 years to marry his beloved, who comes to be known as Mumtaz Mahal; however, Arjumand becomes his second wife, as Khurram first marries a Persian princess as part of a political alliance. The detailed, full-color illustrations enhance the story with their expressiveness and rich jewel tones, but the narrative itself lacks depth and perspective. More important, the text either ignores or glosses over historic details: Shah Jahan had three wives (the last of whom does not make an appearance), and the laborers, who spend years constructing the Taj Mahal, look upon Shah Jahan as a benevolent ruler.
A passable introduction to the life of Shah Jahan for lovers of history. (historical and biographical notes) (Graphic history. 12-14)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-93-81182-59-8
Page Count: 118
Publisher: Campfire
Review Posted Online: Aug. 4, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
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by Rik Hoskin ; illustrated by Naresh Kumar
by Karen Blumenthal ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 14, 2018
Painstaking, judicious, and by no means exculpatory but with hints of sympathy.
A portrait of two victims of the Great Depression whose taste for guns and fast cars led to short careers in crime but longer ones as legends.
Blumenthal (Hillary Rodham Clinton, 2016, etc.) makes a determined effort to untangle a mare’s nest of conflicting eyewitness accounts, purple journalism, inaccurate police reports, and self-serving statements from relatives and cohorts of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. Though the results sometimes read as dry recitations of names and indistinguishable small towns, she makes perceptive guesses about what drove them and why they have become iconic figures, along with retracing their early lives, two-year crime spree, and subsequent transformations into doomed pop-culture antiheroes. She does not romanticize the duo—giving many of their murder victims faces through individual profiles, for instance, and describing wounds in grisly detail—but does convincingly argue that their crimes and characters (particularly Bonnie’s) were occasionally exaggerated. Blumenthal also wrenchingly portrays the desperation that their displaced, impoverished families must have felt while pointedly showing how an overtaxed, brutal legal system can turn petty offenders into violent ones. A full version of Bonnie’s homespun ballad “The Story of Bonnie and Clyde” and notes on the subsequent lives of significant relatives, accomplices, and lawmen join meaty lists of sources and interviews at the end.
Painstaking, judicious, and by no means exculpatory but with hints of sympathy. (photos, timeline, author’s note, source notes, bibliography, index) (Biography. 12-14)Pub Date: Aug. 14, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-451-47122-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 14, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2018
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by Rik Hoskin ; illustrated by Naresh Kumar ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 24, 2020
A flawed history.
Veteran graphic novelist Hoskin (The Taj Mahal, 2019, etc.) turns to the history of astronomy and the fight for heliocentrism.
Humans have been stargazers for as long as we know, and contributions to the science of astronomy have come from cultures all over the world. Here, Hoskin and illustrator Kumar (Hamlet, 2019, etc.) use the graphic-novel format to present a pivotal point in the history of science. Through the 1500s and 1600s, amid the Reformation and dawning of Enlightenment in Europe, astronomers Copernicus, Bruno, and Galileo used advances in data and mathematics to make a case against the long-held view that the Earth is the center of the universe, around which all else rotates. While stories of the three astronomers whose work at times ran afoul of the Catholic Church are presented, the work of other relevant and notable scientists is completely left out, including the early heliocentrist Aristarchus, while others, like Kepler, receive only a passing mention. It is clear the author is presenting a case of science versus the church more than a full history of how a sun-centered universe (and later solar system) came to be accepted. This along with other errant or confusing statements makes for uneven reading. Backmatter presents information about how the planets got their names as well as the history of the Indian space program and notable Indian scientists.
A flawed history. (planetary information, timelines, biographies) (Graphic nonfiction. 12-14)Pub Date: March 24, 2020
ISBN: 978-93-81182-96-3
Page Count: 92
Publisher: Campfire
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
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by Rik Hoskin ; illustrated by Aadil Khan
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