I like the idea behind this book. Robert Lawson couldn't do anything really poor. But I found this disappointing — and I wonder whether children can be persuaded to read for themselves, and dig out the nuggets that are there. The book might have been called "They Made America" — for the idea back of the book is that everyone has ancestors who were strong and good, even if they were not famous, and that it was of such people that our real strength was made, through them the pattern of life was formed, people came together and built for permanency and the future, the America we know. It is an adult concept. He has attempted to bring it to human terms by using brief factual material from his own family story. But it just seems to lack the spark, and the jacket drawings are a trifle austere and forbidding — so it seems to me.
Pub Date: Sept. 27, 1940
ISBN: 0670699497
Page Count: 68
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1940
Overall, the stories are engaging and inspiring, from the tribulations that came upon Emancipation to the strange new world...
Brief fictional sketches walk readers through 150 years of American history.
Arato takes nine powerful slices of American history—such as Valley Forge, the Second Battle of Bull Run, the Gold Rush, the founding of the Perkins School for the Blind and Berea College, Hull House, the Johnstown Flood—and wraps them in neat, emotive, unvarnished stories that feature a day in the life of a child caught up in the action. Shannon introduces each segment with an atmospheric illustration, Disney-like scene-setters that function as launching pads for the affecting tales. One may be as plain as the miseries of war—“The Union army regrouped at Bull Run under a pall of defeat so thick, it seemed to suck the air from the sky”—while another may take a more psychological air, as one boy hides a gold nugget so his father can’t gamble it away. Only rarely does the author let the sheer fervor of the story lead her onto shaky ground: Did the Oneida Nation really consider the Revolutionary War as “our cause,” or as a strategic alliance? (She clarifies in a fact-based endnote—one accompanies each chapter—that the Oneidas were ultimately given the raw end of the stick, their treaty lands diminished from 6 million acres to 32 acres.)
Overall, the stories are engaging and inspiring, from the tribulations that came upon Emancipation to the strange new world opened to Chinese workers recruited for the Transcontinental Railroad to the pure brilliance of a school for the blind. (Historical fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-926818-91-7
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Owlkids Books
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This is history at its best, an original and appealing way to mark the centennial of this familiar disaster.
A memorial edition of an imagined magazine covers the construction and fateful voyage of the R.M.S. Titanic, Queen of the Ocean, which sank in April 1912.
As in Lincoln Shot! (2008), the design alludes to the historical period, here using the dimensions and sepia tones of an old-time newspaper supplement. Visually dramatic pages are filled with photos and memorabilia as well as eyewitness accounts that add to the “You are there” effect. The first third of Denenberg’s narrative consists of articles purportedly published between 1903 and 1912, the second is the unfinished (and miraculously recovered) journal of the magazine’s correspondent. The final section includes a chronology of the ship’s final hours, statements from survivors and an interview with the captain of the rescue ship, all based on actual testimony. A “note from the publisher” closes the narrative with a short round-up of what followed. This is a story of heroism as well as personal and corporate greed, issues that still resonate today. The text is lively, compelling and convincing, but written to answer 21st-century readers’ questions. Because readers know the outcome, many of the chosen quotations sound ironic, especially cheerful reiterations that the ship is unsinkable.
This is history at its best, an original and appealing way to mark the centennial of this familiar disaster. (author’s note, source notes, bibliography) (Nonfiction.10-14)Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-670-01243-5
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
