(Picture book/biography. 5-10)
This Indian import traces the life and work of the social reformer Bhimrao “Bhim” Ambedkar as he fought for the rights of lower-caste people in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Even as a child, Bhim is aware that the world he lives in is “like a ladder” and that he (like the other people in his caste) occupies the lowest rung. Bhim is considered an “Untouchable”; this means that they cannot eat with people from higher castes, drink from the same wells, swim in the same ponds, or even be touched. Despite the numerous obstacles placed in his path, Bhim studies hard and wins a scholarship to a school in the United States. He also studies law in London and, upon his return, fights for the basic human rights of his people. The picture book concludes with a timeline of Ambedkar’s life and a brief explanation of caste, which clarifies that “practicing untouchability is illegal” and that those formerly called Untouchables are today called Dalits. Gade’s brushy watercolors brim with energy and even humor. Rajendran’s text and Gade’s depiction of culturally familiar images, however, seem aimed primarily at an Indian audience living in India, and North American audiences unfamiliar with the context will need some help. They may also be struck at the strong implication that social inequalities exist only in India.
(Picture book/biography. 5-10)Pub Date: April 14, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9995476-0-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Kitaabworld
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
Prospective younger visitors can do better than this bland mush.
A scan of landmarks, neighborhoods, food, and other attractions in the Big Apple.
Perfunctory efforts to give this tour at least a pretense of geographic or thematic unity only add to its higgledy-piggledy character. Arrhenius (City, 2018, etc.) opens with a full-page view of the Brooklyn Bridge soaring over an otherwise-unidentifiable cityscape opposite a jumble of eight smaller images that are, for all that one is labeled “Brooklyn Academy of Music” and another “Coney Island,” are likewise so stylized as to look generic. From there, in the same one-topic-per-spread format, it’s on to Manhattan uptown and down for “Rockefeller Center,” “Shopping,” and other random bites. The “Harlem” spread features a fire hydrant, a mailbox, and the (actually distant) Cloisters museum, for instance, and a glance into “Queens” offers glimpses of the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, a “Greek restaurant,” a “Mexican restaurant,” and “marathon runners.” The large trim size and aesthetic mimic M. Sasek’s perennial This Is New York (1960, revised edition 2003) while adding much-needed updates with both more diverse arrays of dress and skin hues for the stylized human figures as well as the addition of sites such as the Stonewall Inn, the 9/11 memorial, and the Fearless Girl statue.
Prospective younger visitors can do better than this bland mush. (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0990-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Walker US/Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 12, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
A welcome addition to the folklore bookshelf.
Traditional tales and myths from the different regions of Switzerland.
In this collection, originally published in German, not all the stories are stories in the traditional sense, involving conflict and resolution. Many are simple folk explanations of natural phenomena that typically involve some mythical being, such as the existence of “two gigantic perpendicular rocks linked together by a stone roof” in a forest of the Aargau region, which was once “the entrance to an underground cave. In this cave lived the goblins.” In another, a devil gets the credit for a rock that sits near a bridge over the River Reuss. In the different accounts, goblins, ghosts, devils, fairies, dwarfs, and other mythical beings interact with humans, usually to the detriment of one or the other. And all have a delightful folksy edge. There are 23 stories in all, representing most of the Swiss cantons, but more importantly, they cover the four language regions of Switzerland, thus capturing the diverse perspectives of the country. Nineteen different illustrators were tasked with illustrating the tales, and their aesthetic sensibilities and approaches are as varied as the stories themselves. Nevertheless, the book maintains a satisfying and attractive cohesiveness.
A welcome addition to the folklore bookshelf. (epilogue, artist bios) (Folklore. 5-9)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-3-314-10488-6
Page Count: 136
Publisher: NorthSouth
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
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