A breezy, bustling bucketful of courageous acts and eye-popping feats.
Why should grown-ups get all the historical, scientific, athletic, cinematic, and artistic glory?
Choosing exemplars from both past and present, Mitchell includes but goes well beyond Alexander the Great, Anne Frank, and like usual suspects to introduce a host of lesser-known luminaries. These include Shapur II, who was formally crowned king of Persia before he was born, Indian dancer/professional architect Sheila Sri Prakash, transgender spokesperson Jazz Jennings, inventor Param Jaggi, and an international host of other teen or preteen activists and prodigies. The individual portraits range from one paragraph to several pages in length, and they are interspersed with group tributes to, for instance, the Nazi-resisting “Swingkinder,” the striking New York City newsboys, and the marchers of the Birmingham Children’s Crusade. Mitchell even offers would-be villains a role model in Elagabalus, “boy emperor of Rome,” though she notes that he, at least, came to an awful end: “Then, then! They dumped his remains in the Tiber River, to be nommed by fish for all eternity.” The entries are arranged in no evident order, and though the backmatter includes multiple booklists, a personality quiz, a glossary, and even a quick Braille primer (with Braille jokes to decode), there is no index. Still, for readers whose fires need lighting, there’s motivational kindling on nearly every page.
A breezy, bustling bucketful of courageous acts and eye-popping feats. (finished illustrations not seen) (Collective biography. 10-13)Pub Date: May 10, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-14-751813-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Puffin
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2015
Just another fabulously wealthy high school dropout role model.
Bland, standard-issue profile of a (now) 26-year-old Internet entrepreneur.
Citing only previously published sources, the author retraces Karp’s rocketlike rise from disaffected student and teenage computer nerd to chief architect of Tumblr. Since he hasn’t really done much, aside from leaving school early, spending a few months in Japan and then making a zillion dollars since 2007 with his microblogging platform, the narrative is largely an eye-glazing tally of internships, business associates, awards and dizzying statistical milestones. Kenney neglects to analyze Tumblr’s innovations, online community or general context—or for that matter, even to explain the origins of “tumblelog,” from which the platform’s name is derived. Her insights into Karp’s character are limited to mentions of idols Steve Jobs (extolled for his “keynotes”) and Willy Wonka and his habit of carrying a paper notebook because “[being] on computers all the time makes me feel gross.” Many of the color photos are space-filler views of city skylines or the outsides of buildings.
Just another fabulously wealthy high school dropout role model. (endnotes, bibliography, index) (Biography. 10-13)Pub Date: May 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4677-1285-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Lerner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
The melodrama is laid on with a trowel, but it’s nevertheless a thoroughly documented, visually rich presentation of the...
Aiming for a young audience, the popular political pundit pares down his Killing Kennedy (2012) considerably (and leaves out the sexual exploits) while shoveling in sheaves of documentary photographs.
O’Reilly writes in staccato bursts of present-tense prose chopped into short chapters and featuring quick shifts in point of view. This effectively cranks up the suspense despite tinges of purple (“The man with fewer than three years to live places his left hand on the Bible”) and the foreordained outcome. The book chronicles John F. Kennedy’s course from PT-109 through a challenging presidency and positively harps on Lee Harvey Oswald’s determined but doomed quest to become a “great man.” Though he ends with a personal anecdote that hints at the possibility of a conspiracy, the author’s closely detailed account of the assassination itself and its aftermath follows the Warren Commission’s version of events. News photos or snapshots on nearly every page provide views of the Kennedy and Oswald families over time, as well as important figures, places and major world events. Aside from a perfunctory list of “Fun Facts About the Early 1960s” that seems misplaced considering the somber topic, the backmatter is both extensive and helpful for further study of Kennedy’s career and accomplishments.
The melodrama is laid on with a trowel, but it’s nevertheless a thoroughly documented, visually rich presentation of the official version. (timeline, quotes, capsule bios, sites, books, films, source notes, index) (Nonfiction. 11-13)Pub Date: June 11, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-8050-9802-0
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2013
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