By the author of a well-regarded adult book on Marie Curie (Grand Obsession, 1989), a well-organized, admirably detailed account that will especially interest young scientists. Lucidly, Pflaum explains the theoretical insights and arduous work that led to two Nobels for Marie (for the discovery of natural radioactivity) and another for Iräne Curie-Joliet and her husband (who first duplicated radioactivity artificially). The description of the close-knit scientific community of the period and its working conditions and place in society is also fascinating; as women, the Curies racked up several firsts not only in science but in education and government. Work took precedence for the Curies, yet Marie was a lifelong patriot of her native Poland and made sure her gifted daughter received favored treatment at the renowned Curie Institute; Pflaum includes enough personal detail to make her subjects human, balancing a basically laudatory depiction with hints of believable stresses and foibles. The many well-chosen b&w photos are beautifully reproduced. For authority, depth of coverage, and readability, a top choice. Includes two simple physics experiments that Marie Curie used as a teacher. Bibliography; index. (Biography. 11+)
Pub Date: March 22, 1993
ISBN: 0-8225-4915-8
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Lerner
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1993
Clearly written, with heart and integrity, but lacking in substance: tasty but not very filling.
Melian, a chef, activist, and former Test Kitchen Manager at Bon Appétit, begins this brief memoir by recounting clearing out the freezer and finding and eating one last helping of her mother’s signature fish dish following her death.
Sharing this precious meal with her brother connected them emotionally and physically with their mother one last time. In other vignettes, she ties her love of food to her happy childhood in Argentina; memories of cooking with her cousins at her abuela’s house and, in particular, her abuela’s ravioles de seso; the revelation of a sidewalk vendor’s hot pretzel that she ate following her arrival in New York City to explore a new path after studying journalism in Buenos Aires; and the physical and mental strength she developed after going into business to sell her empanadas. Melian briefly alludes to her work bringing free food education to inner-city public schools, but the stories she shares here are overall more personal and primal—food as sustenance, not as a vehicle for social justice—which feels like a missed opportunity. She also references in passing the difficulties of being a woman in a male-dominated industry where being Latina and speaking English with an accent affected how she was treated. Each of the individual anecdotes stands alone, without a narrative arc connecting them, but the descriptions of food are rich in sensory detail.
Clearly written, with heart and integrity, but lacking in substance: tasty but not very filling. (Memoir. 12-18)Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-22349-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2021
A must-read reminder that transformation is made possible through community.
Explores historical threads of race, faith, and family as they weave together in the transformation of youthful, imprisoned Malcolm Little into empowered, purpose-driven Malcolm X.
Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz, partners with rising literary star Jackson to explore 20-something Malcolm’s growth through reading, debate, and dialogue. This dedication and rediscovery of purpose, made manifest through newfound faith, would catapult him to the global stage as the chief spokesman for the Nation of Islam under the tutelage of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Refusing to establish his transformation as the marker of an unjust prison system’s rehabilitation strategy, this fictionalized retelling spotlights the relationships, perspectives, lessons, and questions delivered by Black men imprisoned around him and the critical embrace of a family that never abandoned him. “Wake up, Malcolm” is a cue that resounds throughout, linking the familial legacy of Malcolm’s parents, who held ties to ministry and served roles in the racial uplift mission of Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association. Readers will make connections to persistent injustices faced by Black communities—and the beautiful ways which, despite that terror, Black families have found to craft visions of freedom and lives of dignity and love. This novel showcases the ways that becoming is a social process requiring care, commitment, and community but is ultimately world-changing work.
A must-read reminder that transformation is made possible through community. (more information, timeline, Malcolm X’s reading list, authors’ note) (Biographical novel. 12-18)Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-374-31329-6
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
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