A book worthy of the statue herself.
Lady Liberty’s arrival almost didn’t happen.
Intended as a 100th-birthday gift from France, the statue was the brainchild of a French judge who envisioned a symbol of friendship between the two nations and hired sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi to create it. After choosing its New York Harbor site, he fashioned numerous, ever larger models and chose copper for its light weight. Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel devised an “iron skeleton” to support Liberty, and then the completed statue was exhibited in Paris; parts of it had already been shown in the States. A pedestal was designed—with no funds to build it. Nonetheless, Bartholdi had the statue’s pieces shipped in crates to America nine years after the centennial. Finally, Joseph Pulitzer successfully encouraged Americans to donate; Emma Lazarus’ poem “The New Colossus” was initially written as a fundraiser. In a crowded field, Byrd’s signature narrative and artistic styles elevate this effort. Pages with type set in newspaperlike double columns feature outsized, capitalized headlines and datelines denoting years and places. Spreads include masterly ink-and-watercolor illustrations with details that invite readers to pore over artwork. The author’s awestruck writing, featuring punchy, taut sentences, makes for fast-paced reading, as do dramatic page turns, and it emphasizes the grandeur of the enterprise; fascinating, quirky facts abound. In most illustrations, persons default white.
A book worthy of the statue herself. (measurements, timeline, facts about the statue and historical figures, author’s note, bibliography) (Informational picture book. 7-11)Pub Date: June 18, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-7352-3082-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
An enthralling historical account.
Rentetzi tells a lesser-known but inspiring story of science and politics.
In 1958, the U.S. donated two mobile labs to the International Atomic Energy Agency to demonstrate how, in the wake of World War II, nuclear power could be used for good. The vehicles visited four continents, providing global scope to the project. From the book’s first spread, which refers to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (and includes an image of a mushroom cloud), Rentetzi’s clear, concise text, translated from Dutch, explains the hope that the labs would allow scientists to make advances in agriculture, medicine, and industry. Scientists “with or without lab coats, with or without shoes” attended training sessions and applied what they’d learned to local challenges. De Decker’s precise, powerful line-and-color artwork—a mix of vignettes and full-page spreads, some recalling classic Northern European art—depicts people, landscapes, monuments, transport vehicles, local animals, and the inside of a science lab in the late 1950s. Details from the text are artistically integrated, like a world map and the painted flags that record the countries the mobile labs visited. While the tone is overall positive, Rentetzi acknowledges the complex political undercurrents of the project, noting that the U.S. government sought to make scientists around the world dependent on American technology, thus giving the U.S. an edge over the Soviet Union.
An enthralling historical account. (more information on the mobile labs) (Informational picture book. 7-10)Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2025
ISBN: 9798890632456
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clavis
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
Fans of Terry Deary and Martin Brown’s Horrible Histories and their ilk are unlikely to consider this latest imitation more than an also-ran. Oliver surveys British history from the Isles’ Ice Age formation to the not-exactly-hot-off-the-presses 2005 news that London will host the 2012 Olympics. Though accurate enough in his broad picture, the author’s debatable facts (“…the Romans introduced really useful things such as toilets and even vegetables to the people of Britain”) and awkwardly written generalizations (“The Celtic kings consulted religious advisors to help them rule, known as druids”) drag the bland text down even further. Pinder's pen-and-ink illustrations attempt snark but too often fall flat: “That girl was always getting in my way,” remarks Bloody Mary as Lady Jane Grey’s newly severed head bounces by. This catalog of major British kings, queens, wars, pivotal events and cultural milestones is unlikely to entertain—much less resonate with—American audiences. (index, royal timeline) (Nonfiction. 8-11)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-906082-72-7
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Buster/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2010
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