Stunning art and clever storytelling come together to deliver a poignant message.
A reflection on access to water as a natural resource in India and the price some people must pay for it.
This picture book for middle-grade readers and above touches upon issues of human migration, gender and economic inequalities, and our relationship with nature, through both the author’s personal account and a fable from the Gond people of India. Framing the narrative as a visit home from the city, Vyam shares vignettes of how people live differently in villages and cities in India and explores their interdependence on natural resources. He traces developments in his home village and their impacts on the lives of its villagers, especially women. He also laments how it is unfair that sometimes villages must pay the price for the increasing demands of the rich people in the city. Threading through all of this is his recollection of the traditional story of seven sisters who bargain with the lake for needed water. Overall, this multilayered story provides many opportunities for discussion on the numerous social and environmental issues we all face. Young readers not of the culture may need explanations of the contexts of both the traditional and the primary stories. The beautiful ink-on-paper illustrations of Gond art magnify the appeal of the book, strikingly depicting aquatic and rural life in bright colors.
Stunning art and clever storytelling come together to deliver a poignant message. (Picture book. 10-adult)Pub Date: April 15, 2018
ISBN: 978-93-83145-61-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Tara Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 4, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
From its enticing, dramatic cover to its brown endpapers to a comical Grant Wood–esque final image, this is a worthy...
A graphic-novel account of the science and history that first created and then, theoretically, destroyed the terrifying Dust Bowl storms that raged in the United States during the “dirty thirties.”
“A speck of dust is a tiny thing. Five of them could fit on the period at the end of this sentence.” This white-lettered opening is set against a roiling mass of dark clouds that spills from verso to recto as a cartoon farmer and scores of wildlife flee for their lives. The dialogue balloon for the farmer—“Oh my God! Here it comes!”—is the first of many quotations (most of them more informative) from transcripts of eyewitnesses. These factual accounts are interspersed with eloquently simple explanations of the geology of the Great Plains, the mistake of replacing bison with cattle and other lead-ups to the devastations of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. The comic-book–style characters create relief from the relentlessly grim stories of hardship and loss, set in frames appropriately backgrounded in grays and browns. Although readers learn of how the U.S. government finally intervened to help out, the text does not spare them from accounts of crippling droughts even in the current decade.
From its enticing, dramatic cover to its brown endpapers to a comical Grant Wood–esque final image, this is a worthy contribution to the nonfiction shelves. (bibliography, source notes, photographs) (Graphic nonfiction. 10 & up)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-547-81550-3
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2013
The Manhattan Project is a complex subject for a book for young readers, but Sullivan does a fine job of relating the fascinating story in clear and lively prose. The three-year Project was huge, secret and desperate, an all-out effort to beat the Nazis in the arms race. The people and places are now legendary: Oppenheimer, Los Alamos, Trinity, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Little Boy, Fat Man and Paul Tibbets. It’s a tale of brilliant scientists, shadowy spies, dreadful war, secret cities and secret lives. Despite the complicated history, this book is completely compelling, a straightforward narrative told with a light touch. Only toward the end does the voice falter, lapsing into a bit of editorializing. Still, the solid writing, attractive design, abundant photographs, suggestions for further reading that include works for young readers, websites and a glossary make this the best work on the subject for young readers. A great match with Ellen Klages’s novel The Green Glass Sea (2006). (appendix, chronology, source notes, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 12+)
Pub Date: June 15, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-8234-1855-8
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2007
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