Forceful and compelling.
A retelling of a legendary princess’s life.
A proud cry from her father announces the birth of Mongolian Princess Khutulun amid a starry night. The daughter of the khan and the great-great-granddaughter of Genghis Khan, Khutulun, like her 14 older brothers, trains to become a warrior and fulfill demanding duties. A boisterous child, she shadows her mother as she skillfully leads meetings and handles advisers. Yet Khutulun finds that she prefers a warrior’s life; she loves to hunt and wrestle alongside her brothers and yearns to ride “under the infinite sky.” Deng skillfully uses white space and textured colors and lines to bring kinetic energy to the narrative, as in a scene where horses charge across the pages when Khutulun joins her father in her first battle. When Khutulun reaches marriageable age, she announces a novel stipulation—she will only marry the man who can break her undefeated wrestling record. Her proclamation is tested when a wealthy challenger appears and her family pressures her to make a pragmatic alliance. Khutulun faces her greatest battle: whether to succumb to expectations or to forge her own path. Deng combines a sharp narrative with powerful imagery to fully capture the tenacity of the warrior princess. The author’s note admits to liberties with the story and explores further details of the princess’s life. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Forceful and compelling. (glossary) (Picture-book biography. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-374-38838-6
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A welcome, though flawed, introduction to the history of girls and athletics.
Girls in sports!
This cheerfully illustrated survey of efforts to make women’s athletics socially acceptable and financially supported provides snippets of information and visually appealing portrayals of female barrier-breakers over time. The tone is a bit naïve—it assumes that readers will be shocked by the sexism of yesteryear—and arbitrary-feeling italicized phrases (“And never, ever sweat”; “Game on!”) interrupt the flow of the text. It’s light on diversity: While ancient and modern Greece (1896 Olympic marathoner Melpomene) are mentioned, the focus is almost entirely on white Americans (Frances Willard, Senda Berenson Abbot, Eleanora Sears, Gertrude Ederle, Margaret Gisolo, Donna de Varona, Maria Pepe), with only brief mentions of women of color Althea Gibson, Shirley Chisholm, and Patsy Mink—although African-American athletes are featured in the timeline, and a multiracial cast of girls are shown in sports today. The somewhat simplified ending holds that through Title IX, girls now receive equal treatment in athletics, ignoring the world outside of the United States as well as the fact that boys’ sports may still receive preference within it. Still, there is nothing similar for this age group, and readers will be interested in the progress of women in sports and drawn in by the excitement of the passage of Title IX.
A welcome, though flawed, introduction to the history of girls and athletics. (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-58089-747-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
The perfect choice to inspire young readers and listeners, with just the right amount of detail to inspire, entrance, and...
“It was dawn when the chorus began.”
As a child, Rachel Carson awoke to a symphony of birds, and she listened, watched, and wrote as other animals joined in. Innovative, appealing illustrations show Rachel in comic-book panels, vignettes, and full- and double-page spreads as she explores, observes, and deeply appreciates nature. A profusion of dialogue balloons reproduces the vocalizations of the animals around her. As a student, Rachel intends to write but instead focuses on the microscopic world in a drop of water, which in turn leads to underwater scientific study and, later, well-received books about the sea. However, it’s when she realizes that the symphony she loves has grown quiet—effectively represented by both the absence of sound bubbles and negative-space outlines of creatures now disappeared—that she makes her greatest contribution by revealing the destruction caused by pesticides in her book Silent Spring, which contributed to the formation of the EPA and the environmental movement. Resilience and dedication are strong underlying themes here; relevant details, such as her mother’s background in music, are seamlessly incorporated; and while the focus understandably stays on her work—her overwhelming success as an activist and scientist in a field dominated by men goes unmentioned—there is certainly room for outside discussion. Carson and her family are white; people of color appear in scenes depicting her impact.
The perfect choice to inspire young readers and listeners, with just the right amount of detail to inspire, entrance, and encourage further investigation. (notes, bibliography) (Picture book/biography. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 14, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-62672-819-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© 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.
