Louis Pierre is a Native-American, nine-year-old boy. Like many kids his age, Louis enjoys Little League and basketball, but he is above all a dancer. Louis learned traditional Native-American dancing from his grandfather, Pat, who believes that dancing is an essential part of their heritage. Talking about a time when traditional dancing was discouraged by US government officials, Pat says: ``Those were some bad times...when your culture is taken away like that, you lose your self-esteem.'' Now Native-American culture is being rejuvenated by young dancers like Louis. At powwows Louis competes. This year, he will try grass dancing—a recently popularized, fluid form of movement. He lovingly designs and helps to make his costume, and he and his family travel to the large, intertribal powwow. After watching the other contests, Louis then prepares for his own. He wins second place for his interpretation of the grass dance and gets ten dollars plus recognition for his talent and effort. Louis looks forward to many more years of dancing on the powwow trail. (A partial list of powwows that take place in US and Canada is included.) A superb photo-essay from newcomer Crum, although the spectacular sound and motion of Native-American dance can't be captured in words. (Nonfiction. 6-11)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-02-725515-8
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Four Winds/MacMillan
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
Trickling, bubbling, swirling, rushing, a river flows down from its mountain beginnings, past peaceful country and bustling city on its way to the sea. Hooper (The Drop in My Drink, 1998, etc.) artfully evokes the water’s changing character as it transforms from “milky-cold / rattling-bold” to a wide, slow “sliding past mudflats / looping through marshes” to the end of its journey. Willey, best known for illustrating Geraldine McCaughrean’s spectacular folk-tale collections, contributes finely detailed scenes crafted in shimmering, intricate blues and greens, capturing mountain’s chill, the bucolic serenity of passing pastures, and a sense of mystery in the water’s shadowy depths. Though Hooper refers to “the cans and cartons / and bits of old wood” being swept along, there’s no direct conservation agenda here (for that, see Debby Atwell’s River, 1999), just appreciation for the river’s beauty and being. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0792-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2000
Keena Ford’s second-grade class is taking a field trip to the United States Capitol. This good-hearted girl works hard to behave, but her impulsive decisions have a way of backfiring, no matter how hard she tries to do the right thing. In this second book in a series, Keena cuts off one of her braids and later causes a congressman to fall down the stairs. The first-person journal format is a stretch—most second graders can barely write, let alone tell every detail of three days of her life. Children will wonder how Keena can cut one of her “two thick braids” all the way off by pretend-snipping in the air. They will be further confused because the cover art clearly shows Keena with a completely different hairdo on the field trip than the one described. Though a strong African-American heroine is most welcome in chapter books and Keena and her family are likable and realistic, this series needs more polish before Keena writes about her next month in school. (Fiction. 6-9)
Pub Date: July 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3264-3
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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