The events of the Civil War unfold, filtered through the experiences of Lula McLean, on whose father’s farm the First Battle of Bull Run was fought, and in whose father’s living room Lee surrendered. Friedman expertly weaves the major facts of the Civil War into her narrative, always returning to Lula’s experiences as a touchstone; she moves, for instance, from the Union blockade of Southern ports to describing how Lula’s family was affected. Nivola’s flat, folk-art-y illustrations do the same, giving readers a panoramic view of Sherman’s march through the South and then, with the turn of the page, focusing on Lula as she decorates the house for Christmas of 1864, her rag doll on the floor and a house slave in the doorway, both watching. Although both text and illustrations allude to slavery, the focus is very much kept on the military campaigns and their effects on Lula and her family. By focusing on Lula and her doll—the “silent witness” of the title—the grand sweep of history is placed very firmly and humanely within the grasp of young readers. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 30, 2005
ISBN: 0-618-44230-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Celebrated collaborators deliver another thoughtful delight, revealing how “making marks” links us across time and space.
The light-skinned, redheaded narrator journeys alone as flight attendants supply snacks to diverse, interspecies passengers. The kid muses, “Sometimes they ask me, ‘Why are you always going to the farthest planet?’ ”The response comes after the traveler hurtles through the solar system, lands, and levitates up to the platform where a welcoming grandmother waits: “Because it’s worth it / to cross one universe / to explore another.” Indeed, child and grandmother enter an egg-shaped, clear-domed orb and fly over a teeming savanna and a towering waterfall before disembarking, donning headlamps, and entering a cave. Inside, the pair marvel at a human handprint and ancient paintings of animals including horses, bison, and horned rhinoceroses. Yockteng’s skilled, vigorously shaded pictures suggest references to images found in Lascaux and Chauvet Cave in France. As the holiday winds down, grandmother gives the protagonist some colored pencils that had belonged to grandfather generations back. (She appears to chuckle over a nude portrait of her younger self.) The pencils “were good for making marks on paper. She gave me that too.” The child draws during the return trip, documenting the visit and sights along the journey home. “Because what I could see was infinity.” (This book was reviewed digitally with 9.8-by-19.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 85% of actual size.)
Celebrated collaborators deliver another thoughtful delight, revealing how “making marks” links us across time and space. (Picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-77306-172-6
Page Count: 52
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A child’s-eye view of the day Rosa Parks would not give up her seat. On Dec. 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Ala., a boy and his mom sit at the back of the bus, and he amuses himself by rolling his tiger’s-eye marble down the bus aisle. “Mrs. Parks from the tailor shop” rolls it back to him. Soon the bus is packed, but it does not move. The boy, acutely sensitive to the tone of his mother’s and the driver’s voices, wonders what is happening, but he sees that, like his mama, Parks has her “strong chin.” She’s taken away, the bus goes home and the boy holds his brown-and-golden marble to the light, thinking he does not have to hide it anymore. The language is rhythmic and inflected with dropped gs, with slightly overdone description, but clearly explains to very young children Parks’s refusal to give up her seat at the front of the bus to a white man. Cooper uses his “subtractive method” on oil color, in which illustrations are rubbed out or lightened, making the pictures glow with burnished grace. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-399-25091-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2009
© Copyright 2025 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.
