by Robert Miller & illustrated by Richard Leonard ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1992
The third in Miller's ``Reflections of a Black Cowboy'' series introduces such nearly-forgotten figures as York, a slave who guided the Lewis and Clark expedition; Pony Express rider George Monroe; Ed Rose, known as ``Cut-Nose'' after Mike Fink bit off that appendage in an epic battle; and Biddy Mason, who spent most of her life as a slave but ended up as a wealthy citizen of Los Angeles. In the persona of an old black hermit up in the hills talking to his dog, the author tells his tales informally, basing them on published accounts (there's a solid bibliography) but supplying his own dialogue and detail. Linoleum prints effectively dramatize the high spots. Lively historical writing, despite the invented speeches and hokey narrative device. (Nonfiction. 11-14)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-382-24081-2
Page Count: 102
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1992
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by Carol Matas ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1993
After witnessing the rising tide of anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany, Daniel is suddenly transported, at age 14, from his comfortable life in Frankfurt to a Polish ghetto, then to Auschwitz and Buchenwald—losing most of his family along the way, seeing Nazi brutality of both the casual and the calculated kind, and recording atrocities with a smuggled camera (``What has happened to me?...Who am I? Where am I going?''). Matas, explicating an exhibit of photos and other materials at the new United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, creates a convincing composite youth and experience—fictional but carefully based on survivors' accounts. It's a savage story with no attempt to soften the culpability of the German people; Daniel's profound anger is easier to understand than is his father's compassion or his sister's plea to ``chose love. Always choose love.'' Daniel survives to be reunited, after the war, with his wife-to-be, but his dying friend's last word echoes beyond the happy ending: ``Remember...'' An unusual undertaking, effectively carried out. Chronology; glossary. (Fiction. 11-14)
Pub Date: April 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-590-46920-7
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1993
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by Carol Matas
BOOK REVIEW
by Carol Matas
BOOK REVIEW
by Carol Matas
by Robert Roper ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1991
Its focus firmly on the details of mountaineering in the French Alps and the Himalayas—mechanics, technique, lore, social milieu—a simplistic novel about an unlikely superheroine (though already making record-breaking climbs while still in her teens, her only major injury occurs early on when a guide hazes her by giving her a double load) who achieves worldwide recognition for her exploits in the 1950's. The tacked-on plot—minor setbacks, a romance with another climber—has less depth than most comic strips and reads like an old-fashioned adulatory biography. Roper is obviously well-acquainted with climbing, and for anyone interested in the subject there's a wealth of information here; he should have omitted the feeble story and added an index. (Fiction. 11-14)
Pub Date: May 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-316-75606-7
Page Count: 188
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1991
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