Another fine photo-essay by the author of Lincoln (1987, Newbery Award) Hine (1874-1940) took up photography while teaching at NYC's Ethical Culture School and was soon photographing immigrants at Ellis Island as a teaching tool. He followed his subjects into their city tenements and photographed their children, often hard at work in sweatshop conditions. He's especially remembered as an investigative reporter (1908-18) for the National Child Labor Committee, touring the US to record children as young as three years old working, for long hours and often under very dangerous conditions, in factories, mines, and fields. Freedman offers the salient facts of Hine's life but focuses, with characteristic thoughtfulness, on this phase of his work and the message it so powerfully conveyed, beautifully summed up in the NCLC's 1913 "Declaration of Dependence" on behalf of children, which proclaimed children's right "to play and to dream," as well as to get "normal sleep" and an education, and called for "the abolition of child labor." But as Freedman points out, legislation—thwarted until the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938—was ultimately the result of economic pressure (adults' need for jobs) rather than humanitarian motives. Sixty-one of Hine's poignantly telling, beautifully composed b&w photos are an integral part of the story. An excellent complement to Cheap Raw Material (p. 560); like Meltzer, Freedman concludes by emphasizing that child labor is a continuing problem. (Nonfiction. 10+)
Pub Date: Aug. 15, 1994
ISBN: 0-395-58703-4
Page Count: 104
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1994
Small but mighty necessary reading.
A miniature manifesto for radical queer acceptance that weaves together the personal and political.
Eli, a cis gay white Jewish man, uses his own identities and experiences to frame and acknowledge his perspective. In the prologue, Eli compares the global Jewish community to the global queer community, noting, “We don’t always get it right, but the importance of showing up for other Jews has been carved into the DNA of what it means to be Jewish. It is my dream that queer people develop the same ideology—what I like to call a Global Queer Conscience.” He details his own isolating experiences as a queer adolescent in an Orthodox Jewish community and reflects on how he and so many others would have benefitted from a robust and supportive queer community. The rest of the book outlines 10 principles based on the belief that an expectation of mutual care and concern across various other dimensions of identity can be integrated into queer community values. Eli’s prose is clear, straightforward, and powerful. While he makes some choices that may be divisive—for example, using the initialism LGBTQIAA+ which includes “ally”—he always makes clear those are his personal choices and that the language is ever evolving.
Small but mighty necessary reading. (resources) (Nonfiction. 14-18)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09368-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
Brief yet inspirational, this story will galvanize youth to use their voices for change.
Testa’s connection to and respect for nature compelled her to begin championing animal causes at the age of 10, and this desire to have an impact later propelled her to dedicate her life to fighting plastic pollution. Starting with the history of plastic and how it’s produced, Testa acknowledges the benefits of plastics for humanity but also the many ways it harms our planet. Instead of relying on recycling—which is both insufficient and ineffective—she urges readers to follow two additional R’s: “refuse” and “raise awareness.” Readers are encouraged to do their part, starting with small things like refusing to use plastic straws and water bottles and eventually working up to using their voices to influence business and policy change. In the process, she highlights other youth advocates working toward the same cause. Short chapters include personal examples, such as observations of plastic pollution in Mauritius, her maternal grandparents’ birthplace. Testa makes her case not only against plastic pollution, but also for the work she’s done, resulting in something of a college-admissions–essay tone. Nevertheless, the first-person accounts paired with science will have an impact on readers. Unfortunately, no sources are cited and the lack of backmatter is a missed opportunity.
Brief yet inspirational, this story will galvanize youth to use their voices for change. (Nonfiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-22333-8
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
© Copyright 2024 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.
