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
Leedy (Measuring Penny, 1998, etc.), so deft in making hard facts memorable and setting information into a context that makes sense to children, selects a hodge-podge of details and miscellany to convey a sense of what every state is about, as either a political entity or a place. Into lively, effulgent illustrations she plants a monotonous, forgettable list of items to distinguish every state: a map, the state flower and bird, a whiff of landscape, a glimpse of industry. There’s little about such a list—e.g., wheat, pronghorn, western meadowlark, prairie rose, Sitting Bull—to shout, in that example, “North Dakota” to children. The alphabetical listing—Alaska through Wyoming, four states a spread, with room for the US territories and Washington, D.C.—will help researchers, although it necessarily separates states that have natural geographic or historic connections, such as Vermont and New Hampshire, or West Virginia and Virginia, divided during the Civil War. Readers gain a good, first-line resource, with all the enthusiasm Leedy has made her trademark, but without much chance that they’ll adopt the excitement. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 15, 1999
ISBN: 0-8234-1431-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A clear, understandable account of a young Jewish boy's terrible experiences during the World War II. In 1944, when Eliezer Wiesel was 15, his town of Sighet (then part of Hungary) was invaded by the German army, who forced all the Jews to live in ghettos. From there, the Wiesel family were sent to concentration camps where, with the exception of Elie, they all were killed. Without fanfare but with dignified emphasis, author Pariser describes the cruelties and horrors of Wiesel's life as an inmate, as well as his subsequent liberation by Allied forces and his future vocation as a journalist, author, speaker, and political activist. Photographs from the WW II period establish a mood of somber witness. With its clear, narrative style, useful bibliography, chronology, and index, this is an excellent introduction to what is undeniably one of the darkest periods in modern history. (Nonfiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: Aug. 15, 1994
ISBN: 1-56294-419-3
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Millbrook
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1994
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