Goodman tells the story of Robert Henry Hendershot, the famous “Drummer Boy of the Rappahannock.” Robert runs away from home to join the Union army and finds himself at the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862, three months after Antietam. Ambrose Burnside is now in command of the Army of the Potomac, taking General George McClellan’s place, and Robert is his drummer boy. Not so much the story of the war or even the single battle, this is about one boy’s chance to prove himself and make his mother proud. It is a 12-year-old’s view of his role in one major battle. Robert crosses the pontoon bridge, takes a prisoner, becomes famous, and meets President Lincoln. He even has a poem written about him. As the author is careful to point out, this is a novel based on a true story. She has “dreamed up” Robert’s conversations and private thoughts while staying true to the essence of Robert’s actual story. This entry in the Ready-for-Chapters series succeeds in presenting an interesting slice of history and explaining its context in an afterword. It is a good example of how an early chapter book can provide substantial historical material in a simple format and still do its subject justice. A solid offering for young readers. (poem, bibliography) (Fiction. 6-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-689-84980-X
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2003
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
Hodgkins’s entry in the Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science series draws a visual timeline from centuries back, when humans’ dreams of flying evolved into reality. The succinct, simplified text cites human efforts to fly like birds and describes the aeronautical physics of gliding using drag force, thrust and lift. Kelley’s breezy illustrations convey a buoyant tone and keep the explanations understandable for curious young minds. Two pages of backmatter provide “Flying Facts” and instructions for making a paper airplane. Lightly touching on everything from the days of imagining the winged Icarus and dreaming of wings to today’s nonchalance about air travel, this is a welcome addition to easy science books about humans and flight. (Picture book/nonfiction. 6-9)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-06-029558-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Collins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2007
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