In a departure from other Paul Revere stories, Krensky (How Santa Lost His Job, 2001, etc.) tells the tale from the perspectives of Paul Revere, British General Gage, and his commander, Lord Percy. While Revere rushes to begin his ride to warn the patriots in Concord, the British troops form lines for a review that brings an end to months of inactivity. They wanted a fight, but did not really believe the colonists would go to battle over their ideals. Under the two lights shining from the Old North Church tower, both Paul and the Redcoats made their way across the Charles River by boat. With his fast horse, Paul escaped one set of soldiers waiting on the road, and spread the word to the patriots in Lexington. Paul’s luck held even when the British soldiers captured him. They were so worried by his message that Concord had been warned that they took his horse, but set him free. The fighting at Lexington and the North Bridge are covered in two brief pages, and Revere’s life during the war in one small paragraph, but for the reader, the ride of Paul Revere, and the actions of the British soldiers on that famous night are made real. Harlin’s (Mississippi, not reviewed) watercolors marvelously illustrate colonial times, from the painstakingly detailed British uniforms and the dress of the American colonists, to the clapboard houses and the furnishings within. He uses close-ups to focus the reader’s attention and complement the words of the text. As the author describes the Regulars’ departure from the boats, the reader can see the water and mud they trudged through and easily imagine their discomfort. The front endpaper features a map showing the route of Paul Revere’s ride, and an afterword gives more background to the conflict between the colonists and England, as well as the ultimate outcome. A good introduction to the start of the Revolutionary War. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-12)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-688-16409-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2002
Strong rhythms and occasional full or partial rhymes give this account of P.T. Barnum’s 1884 elephant parade across the newly opened Brooklyn Bridge an incantatory tone. Catching a whiff of public concern about the new bridge’s sturdiness, Barnum seizes the moment: “’I will stage an event / that will calm every fear, erase every worry, / about that remarkable bridge. / My display will amuse, inform / and astound some. / Or else my name isn’t Barnum!’” Using a rich palette of glowing golds and browns, Roca imbues the pachyderms with a calm solidity, sending them ambling past equally solid-looking buildings and over a truly monumental bridge—which soars over a striped Big Top tent in the final scene. A stately rendition of the episode, less exuberant, but also less fictionalized, than Phil Bildner’s Twenty-One Elephants (2004), illustrated by LeUyen Pham. (author’s note, resource list) (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2005
ISBN: 0-618-44887-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2005
The author of Cod’s Tale (2001) again demonstrates a dab hand at recasting his adult work for a younger audience. Here the topic is salt, “the only rock eaten by human beings,” and, as he engrossingly demonstrates, “the object of wars and revolutions” throughout recorded history and before. Between his opening disquisition on its chemical composition and a closing timeline, he explores salt’s sources and methods of extraction, its worldwide economic influences from prehistoric domestication of animals to Gandhi’s Salt March, its many uses as a preservative and industrial product, its culinary and even, as the source for words like “salary” and “salad,” its linguistic history. Along with lucid maps and diagrams, Schindler supplies detailed, sometimes fanciful scenes to go along, finishing with a view of young folk chowing down on orders of French fries as ghostly figures from history look on. Some of Kurlansky’s claims are exaggerated (the Erie and other canals were built to transport more than just salt, for instance), and there are no leads to further resources, but this salutary (in more ways than one) micro-history will have young readers lifting their shakers in tribute. (Picture book/nonfiction. 8-10)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-399-23998-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2006
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