This book delivers a beautiful and tender message about equality from the very first page. (Picture book/memoir. 6-9)
Sharon Langley became the first African American child to legally ride the carousel at Gwynn Oak Amusement Park in Baltimore, Maryland, one month before her first birthday, in 1963.
Her ride on the carousel followed a series of protests and the arrests of many, including children, who demanded the park integrate. The story is told through a conversational reminiscence between a school-age Sharon and her parents, interspersed with moments when Langley speaks to readers as an adult. The questions the little girl poses to her parents are those one would expect from a child grappling with injustice: “What about the Golden Rule? What about treating other people the way you want to be treated?” Her mother tenderly answers her innocent yet complicated questions with kindness and grace: “I guess some people forgot that the Golden Rule is supposed to include everyone.” Braided into the story are mentions of the other children who participated in the protests for the integration of the park. Backmatter includes photographs and a note from Langley, a timeline, and updates about the people mentioned in the story. Cooper’s grainy sepia and golden tones with bright bursts of color give the book a dreamy and nostalgic quality that fits well with the story.
This book delivers a beautiful and tender message about equality from the very first page. (Picture book/memoir. 6-9)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3685-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
Good fun wrapped in a cracking piece of characterization and history.
A dramatic telling of Lindbergh’s flight from New York City to Paris, France.
Houran conveys readers to a time when flying was still a daredevil activity and aces such as René Fonck were international celebrities. Flying contests were common in the 1920s, and as the planes got better, so did the prizes. The Orteig Prize, named after a New York City hotelier who set the challenge, would pay $25,000 to the first flyer to make a nonstop journey from New York City to Paris. Lindbergh was a stuntman and a barnstormer before he decided to take a shot at the challenge. One of the beauties of Houran’s reconstruction of the event is that it brings Lindbergh’s feat into focus: He was not the first to fly across the Atlantic; he did not fly on a wing and a prayer but planned extensively; a number of other, more famous flyers were in the race, including Fonck and Richard E. Byrd, who had recently flown to the North Pole. She also tips her hat to Lindbergh’s tactical wizardry and keeps the tale not just at a high pitch (“He buckled his safety belt. He pulled on his flying helmet. He fit his goggles over his eyes”), but in a lather: “LINDBERGH! the crowd cried....The crowd lifted him above their heads. They bounced him along like a beach ball!”
Good fun wrapped in a cracking piece of characterization and history. (Nonfiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-385-38284-7
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014
Not of general interest to the intended audience.
The women of the Warli people of western India first produced wall murals, but now men commercially produce these designs on paper and canvases.
Focusing on quotidian activities, these paintings are highly recognizable due to their use of geometric shapes, including figures created with two triangles, one inverted above the other. White, rice-flour people, animals, trees, and symbols are traditionally painted on dark backgrounds made of red mud or cow dung. Jeong has skillfully created a series of paintings that look like the originals. She has taken a few liberties in doing one double-page spread with brown ink on a beige background and one illustration with a green background. Part of the Trade Winds series “featuring stories set in key periods of the history of economy and culture,” the book’s main attraction is the strong illustrations, which will probably appeal more to adults interested in folk art than young children. The simple text accompanying each spread is appropriate for children but often seems so generalized that it could almost describe any agricultural society. Troublingly, the book almost gives the impression that the Warli people no longer exist. The backmatter attempts to contextualize this culture within other agricultural societies but confuses rather than enlightens.
Not of general interest to the intended audience. (cultural, historical, and art-historical notes, glossary, timeline) (Informational picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-8028-5476-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Eerdmans
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
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