A glittering hoardlet of pirate legend and lore.
A gallery of romanticized buccaneer all-stars, from the Elizabethan era’s Sir Francis Drake to 19th-century pirate queen Ching Shih.
Most of the seven men and four women portrayed here, from John “Black Bart” Roberts, the “best dressed pirate ever,” to Anne Bonny and Mary Read, are renowned enough to be generally familiar. Still, Munro follows up her colorful (if likely unproveable) claim that Drake was “the second-highest earning pirate of all time” with an introduction to her candidate for the richest—Henry Avery, a one-time slave trader about whom almost nothing is known except that he came away fantastically rich after taking a treasure ship owned by the Grand Moghul of India. The book closes with a thumbnail history of piracy in general up to the present day that explodes at least a few myths—Viking ships were mostly rowed by enslaved thralls, not warriors, and there is only one documented instance of anyone being made to walk the plank—and includes a gallery of common types of ships sailed during piracy’s “Golden Age.” A portrait of Captain Morgan posed like the image on a popular rum bottle label may be a misstep, but elsewhere, along with rousing views of piratical loot and flamboyant garb, the illustrations offer images of rakish sailing ships and mildly dangerous-looking swashbucklers of both sexes. Skin tones vary.
A glittering hoardlet of pirate legend and lore. (index, bibliography) (Informational picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2026
ISBN: 9780823459476
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
An artful and inspiring effort.
Burleigh weaves imagination and information to sketch the life of a female scientist and illuminate her achievements.
Henrietta Swan Leavitt, born in 1868, was a graduate of Oberlin and of the school that would become Radcliffe. Her interest in astronomy led her to work for many years in the Harvard Observatory. Although women were prevented from taking part in many facets of academic exploration, Leavitt made a major discovery within the parameters of her assigned work. Though little is known of his subject’s life, Burleigh posits an early interest in the stars that may help to engage young listeners. The conversational text moves quickly, taking readers from dreamy child to dedicated researcher. Sophisticated vocabulary and complex concepts, as well as the variety of supplementary information Burleigh provides, from quotations about the stars to brief information about other female astronomers, suggest that this would be most useful as supplemental material in a science curriculum. Colón’s watercolor, pen and pencil illustrations extend the text as, for example, when the sideways glances of Leavitt’s college peers effectively convey just how unusual her interests and accomplishments were for the time. They also capture the fascination and beauty of starlight, which seems almost to twinkle at times. The current educational emphasis on science, technology, engineering and math (aka STEM) will likely increase interest in biographies about women’s achievements in these fields.
An artful and inspiring effort. (quotations, afterword, author’s note, glossary, Internet resources, bibliography) (Picture book/biography. 7-9)Pub Date: Feb. 19, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4169-5819-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Dec. 25, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2013
Despite awkwardness, this is a welcome window into an important American life
Pants: Women were not supposed to wear them.
Mary Walker not only got her medical degree in 1855, but found it much easier to do her work dressed smartly in men’s trousers and tailored jacket. She was not accepted in the Union Army at first, but as an unpaid hospital volunteer, she tended the Civil War sick and wounded in Washington, D.C., and field hospitals. She was finally commissioned in late 1863, then captured and imprisoned by the Confederates. She was exchanged for a Confederate officer, and in 1866, she was given the Medal of Honor, the first and only woman to receive it. Harness tries valiantly to work this complicated story into one comprehensible for the early grades, but it makes for some difficult phrasing. Calling her, as some did, a “pesky camp follower” has very negative implications that adults, at least, will get. “Many Americans, especially in the South, firmly believed that enslaving people from Africa was a normal thing to do,” is an awkward encapsulation of the reason for the Civil War. Molinari’s images are richly colored and drawn in an old-fashioned but very compatible style and do a lot toward fleshing out the text.
Despite awkwardness, this is a welcome window into an important American life . (Picture book/biography. 7-9)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-8075-4990-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
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