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BOOKS AND BRICKS

Name: BOOKS AND BRICKS
Author: Sindiwe Magona
ISBN: 978-1-59572-779-4

HOW A SCHOOL REBUILT THE COMMUNITY

by Sindiwe Magona & Ellen Mayer ; illustrated by Cornelius Van Wright ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 2017

Written to express the power of claiming an ownership of one’s education and the bonds of community, the narrative fails to...

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In this fictionalized story of community organizing and uplift, nonwhite South African families band together to make their community school a place where students feel safe, cared for, and encouraged to awaken their dreams.

Salmina Arends is a black girl and sixth-grader at the imagined Manyano School. (“Manyano” is a Xhosa word meaning “coming together, or unity.”) The school is consistently under siege by skollies, an Afrikaans word for vandals or gang members, and litter is everywhere. When a new principal is able to leverage new computers for the school and they are subsequently stolen, he recognizes something must change. He calls for the community to take ownership of the school, and many of the otherwise unemployed family members begin an industrious schoolyard brick-making project that turns around the culture of the school and reaches into the soul of the community it serves. The afterlife of the apartheid regime in South Africa lingers in the story, but many of the book’s insights into post-apartheid South Africa live between the lines. In the afterword readers learn of the real-life school the episode is based on—and of the unfulfilled promise of universal education. This is crucially missing from the feel-good primary narrative, as is a direct confrontation of the causes of South Africa’s ills.

Written to express the power of claiming an ownership of one’s education and the bonds of community, the narrative fails to live up to what it teaches by reducing and erasing when more hard work and commitment were needed. (glossary, maps, bio of Nelson Mandela) (Fiction. 9-12)

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-59572-779-4

Page Count: 80

Publisher: Star Bright

Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2017

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

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90 MILES TO HAVANA

by Enrique Flores-Galbis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 3, 2010

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After Castro’s takeover, nine-year-old Julian and his older brothers are sent away by their fearful parents via “Operation Pedro Pan” to a camp in Miami for Cuban-exile children. Here he discovers that a ruthless bully has essentially been put in charge. Julian is quicker-witted than his brothers or anyone else ever imagined, though, and with his inherent smarts, developing maturity and the help of child and adult friends, he learns to navigate the dynamics of the camp and surroundings and grows from the former baby of the family to independence and self-confidence. A daring rescue mission at the end of the novel will have readers rooting for Julian even as it opens his family’s eyes to his courage and resourcefulness. This autobiographical novel is a well-meaning, fast-paced and often exciting read, though at times the writing feels choppy. It will introduce readers to a not-so-distant period whose echoes are still felt today and inspire admiration for young people who had to be brave despite frightening and lonely odds. (Historical fiction. 9-12)

Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2010

ISBN: 978-1-59643-168-3

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

Review Posted Online: June 14, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2010

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

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STARRY TALES

by Geraldine McCaughrean & illustrated by Sophy Williams ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

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McCaughrean maintains the dizzyingly high standards of The Golden Hoard (1996) and its sequels with this thematic collection of sky myths and legends. Associated with cultures as diverse as Ancient Rome and the Cook Islands, the 15 tales explain, among other things, rainbows, thunder, falling stars, the origin of night, and why the sun and moon live far apart. Whether love stories, tragedies, accounts of heroic deeds or trickster tales, all are likely to be new to young readers, even those as widely told as “Orion’s Downfall” and the Chinese “Bridge of Magpies.” McCaughrean retells them with characteristic vigor: “With sulfur from the hot springs, with magma from the volcanoes, [the gods] fashioned a foe to send against Orion: an insect that wore its skeleton on the outside for armor, a creature the color of rage and venom . . .” Williams’s indistinct, ordinary-looking figures seldom capture the tales’ drama, and while McCaughrean closes with comments on each story, there are no specific source notes. Still, this extends the scope of such Native American gatherings as Gretchen Mayo’s Star Tales (1987), and readers will be captivated by the range of visions here. (Folktales. 9-12)