A strong story highlighting Black communities’ wartime contributions despite the discrimination they faced at home.
Two African American tweens cope with disruption as the U.S. enters World War II.
Marvel and Roi are growing up in the bustling port city of Wilmington, North Carolina. Marvel aspires to be an Olympic gold medalist like her hero, Jesse Owens. Papa supports her dream, but he’s gone to New York to build airplanes. Marvel suffers more setbacks when her coach joins the Merchant Marines and the demand for housing for shipyard workers encroaches on the running track. Roi, Marvel’s best friend, has a mother in the sanitarium with tuberculosis. His dad left years ago, and when his older brother goes to Jacksonville to enlist with the Marines, Roi is left to care for his little sister. Substitute teacher Mr. Peterson gets the students involved in President Roosevelt’s Victory Garden initiative, and when Roi witnesses someone destroying their hard work, his teacher helps him discover his talent for journalism, which he uses to expose the crime. Mr. Peterson also introduces the children to James Thompson’s letter to the editor of the Pittsburgh Courier, “Should I Sacrifice To Live ‘Half American?’”, arguing for the Double V: victory at home and abroad for African Americans. This story told in the leads’ believable first-person voices is rich in period details, introducing lesser-known aspects of history. The cohesion of the neighborhood is striking, and the intergenerational interactions greatly enrich the narrative.
A strong story highlighting Black communities’ wartime contributions despite the discrimination they faced at home. (author’s note, historical notes) (Historical fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2026
ISBN: 9780823453795
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
An emotional, much-needed historical graphic novel.
Sandy and his family, Japanese Canadians, experience hatred and incarceration during World War II.
Sandy Saito loves baseball, and the Vancouver Asahi ballplayers are his heroes. But when they lose in the 1941 semifinals, Sandy’s dad calls it a bad omen. Sure enough, in December 1941, Japan bombs Pearl Harbor in the U.S. The Canadian government begins to ban Japanese people from certain areas, moving them to “dormitories” and setting a curfew. Sandy wants to spend time with his father, but as a doctor, his dad is busy, often sneaking out past curfew to work. One night Papa is taken to “where he [is] needed most,” and the family is forced into an internment camp. Life at the camp isn’t easy, and even with some of the Asahi players playing ball there, it just isn’t the same. Trying to understand and find joy again, Sandy struggles with his new reality and relationship with his father. Based on the true experiences of Japanese Canadians and the Vancouver Asahi team, this graphic novel is a glimpse of how their lives were affected by WWII. The end is a bit abrupt, but it’s still an inspiring and sweet look at how baseball helped them through hardship. The illustrations are all in a sepia tone, giving it an antique look and conveying the emotions and struggles. None of the illustrations of their experiences are overly graphic, making it a good introduction to this upsetting topic for middle-grade readers.
An emotional, much-needed historical graphic novel. (afterword, further resources) (Graphic historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5253-0334-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
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