A deeply patriotic look at how immigrants’ application of the American ideals of hard work and perseverance can have lasting...
The Wallaces and Nowicka take a look at the first members of families who immigrated to the United States and the impacts they have had on our lives and country through minibiographies and bright, illustrated portraits.
We all come from somewhere, and unless you are Native American, your people came here as immigrants or refugees. That is what makes America so beautiful. This book takes figures from all races, nationalities, and religions and looks at them as human beings and at the amazing things they have accomplished, from politics to art to science and everything in between. From the music of Yo-Yo Ma to the statecraft of Madeleine Albright or the runway walk of Halima Aden, immigrants have shaped this country. They gave us Google, the Sierra Club, and salsa music. Young readers will be constantly surprised by the impacts these new Americans have had without their ever having realized it. Bright portraits accompany each minibiography along with a box that includes highlights of each person’s life. The breezy format will give readers a taste of nonfiction and will ignite their curiosity to delve deeper into the lives of the people within the pages. Selected books and websites for further exploration as well as a bibliography will help them get started.
A deeply patriotic look at how immigrants’ application of the American ideals of hard work and perseverance can have lasting effects. (authors’ note, illustrator’s note) (Collective biography. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-51524-5
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
With young readers diagnosed with anxiety in ever increasing numbers, this book offers a necessary mirror to many.
Young Raina is 9 when she throws up for the first time that she remembers, due to a stomach bug. Even a year later, when she is in fifth grade, she fears getting sick.
Raina begins having regular stomachaches that keep her home from school. She worries about sharing food with her friends and eating certain kinds of foods, afraid of getting sick or food poisoning. Raina’s mother enrolls her in therapy. At first Raina isn’t sure about seeing a therapist, but over time she develops healthy coping mechanisms to deal with her stress and anxiety. Her therapist helps her learn to ground herself and relax, and in turn she teaches her classmates for a school project. Amping up the green, wavy lines to evoke Raina’s nausea, Telgemeier brilliantly produces extremely accurate visual representations of stress and anxiety. Thought bubbles surround Raina in some panels, crowding her with anxious “what if”s, while in others her negative self-talk appears to be literally crushing her. Even as she copes with anxiety disorder and what is eventually diagnosed as mild irritable bowel syndrome, she experiences the typical stresses of school life, going from cheer to panic in the blink of an eye. Raina is white, and her classmates are diverse; one best friend is Korean American.
With young readers diagnosed with anxiety in ever increasing numbers, this book offers a necessary mirror to many. (Graphic memoir. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-545-85251-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
For every dreaming girl (and boy) with a pencil in hand (or keyboard) and a story to share.
A multiaward–winning author recalls her childhood and the joy of becoming a writer.
Writing in free verse, Woodson starts with her 1963 birth in Ohio during the civil rights movement, when America is “a country caught / / between Black and White.” But while evoking names such as Malcolm, Martin, James, Rosa and Ruby, her story is also one of family: her father’s people in Ohio and her mother’s people in South Carolina. Moving south to live with her maternal grandmother, she is in a world of sweet peas and collards, getting her hair straightened and avoiding segregated stores with her grandmother. As the writer inside slowly grows, she listens to family stories and fills her days and evenings as a Jehovah’s Witness, activities that continue after a move to Brooklyn to reunite with her mother. The gift of a composition notebook, the experience of reading John Steptoe’s Stevieand Langston Hughes’ poetry, and seeing letters turn into words and words into thoughts all reinforce her conviction that “[W]ords are my brilliance.” Woodson cherishes her memories and shares them with a graceful lyricism; her lovingly wrought vignettes of country and city streets will linger long after the page is turned.
For every dreaming girl (and boy) with a pencil in hand (or keyboard) and a story to share. (Memoir/poetry. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-399-25251-8
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
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