Suspenseful, informative, and remarkably uplifting.
In August 1929, a talented group of female aviators spearheaded women’s rights when they participated in an all-woman nine-day, cross-country air race that kicked off in California.
Henry Ford had remarked, “I pay our women well so they can dress attractively and get married.” The women were fighting centuries of bias, but all of them were primarily interested in becoming successful fliers; changing the public’s opinion of women’s capabilities was a secondary outcome. Marvel Crosson, Amelia Earhart, Louise Thaden, Ruth Nichols, and others were among the 99 (nearly all white) licensed female pilots in 1929; the other 8,901 were men. Flying opportunities for women of color were even more sharply limited. (Only African American Bessie Coleman is mentioned in this account.) Sheinkin is a master at finding and following narrative hooks, as when he recounts the already highly controversial Women’s Air Derby, which became even more so when a pilot was killed in a crash that may have been caused by someone tampering with her plane. Although Sheinkin covers much of the same ground as Keith O’Brien’s Fly Girls (2019), this effort explores the 1929 race in detail, using that microcosm to reveal the lives of several of the early female fliers. Fascinating prose, a large number of period photographs augmented by Karman’s illustrations, and outstanding backmatter round out an engaging and enlightening presentation. Well-rounded collections should include both of these excellent resources.
Suspenseful, informative, and remarkably uplifting. (Nonfiction. 11-16)Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-62672-130-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
Logically pointing out that the American cowboy archetype didn’t spring up from nowhere, Sandler, author of Cowboys (1994) and other volumes in the superficial, if luxuriously illustrated, “Library of Congress Book” series, looks back over 400 years of cattle tending in North America. His coverage ranges from the livestock carried on Columbus’s second voyage to today’s herding-by-helicopter operations. Here, too, the generous array of dramatic early prints, paintings, and photos are more likely to capture readers’ imaginations than the generality-ridden text. But among his vague comments about the characters, values, and culture passed by Mexican vaqueros to later arrivals from the Eastern US, Sadler intersperses nods to the gauchos, llaneros, and other South American “cowmen,” plus the paniolos of Hawaii, and the renowned African-American cowboys. He also decries the role film and popular literature have played in suppressing the vaqueros’ place in the history of the American West. He tackles an uncommon topic, and will broaden the historical perspective of many young cowboy fans, but his glance at modern vaqueros seems to stop at this country’s borders. Young readers will get a far more detailed, vivid picture of vaquero life and work from the cowboy classics in his annotated bibliography. (Notes, glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2001
ISBN: 0-8050-6019-7
Page Count: 116
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2000
The life of Manjiro Nakahama, also known as John Mung, makes an amazing story: shipwrecked as a young fisherman for months on a remote island, rescued by an American whaler, he became the first Japanese resident of the US. Then, after further adventures at sea and in the California gold fields, he returned to Japan where his first-hand knowledge of America and its people earned him a central role in the modernization of his country after its centuries of peaceful isolation had ended. Expanding a passage from her Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun (1985, Newbery Honor), Blumberg not only delivers an absorbing tale of severe hardships and startling accomplishments, but also takes side excursions to give readers vivid pictures of life in mid-19th-century Japan, aboard a whaler, and amidst the California Gold Rush. The illustrations, a generous mix of contemporary photos and prints with Manjiro’s own simple, expressive drawings interspersed, are at least as revealing. Seeing a photo of Commodore Perry side by side with a Japanese artist’s painted portrait, or strange renditions of a New England town and a steam train, based solely on Manjiro’s verbal descriptions, not only captures the unique flavor of Japanese art, but points up just how high were the self-imposed barriers that separated Japan from the rest of the world. Once again, Blumberg shows her ability to combine high adventure with vivid historical detail to open a window onto the past. (source note) (Biography. 10-13)
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2001
ISBN: 0-688-17484-1
Page Count: 80
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2000
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