Quietly appealing for young readers with a taste for realism.
Scenes from a girl’s everyday life.
In charmingly illustrated panels, readers are invited into the small triumphs and sorrows of cartoonist Kantorovitz’s youth. Born in Casablanca, Morocco, in the 1960s, when she was 5, her parents moved back to France, and her father took a job as a school principal. Sylvie and her three siblings grew up on the grounds of the all-boys school, and brief vignettes explore her relationships with her parents and siblings as well as her friendships, romances, and developing creativity. At first each story seems disconnected from the rest, but as Sylvie grows up, a central narrative around her desire to pursue art coalesces, especially after her family moves to a town near Paris. Kantorovitz uses a muted palette, mostly greens, browns, and yellows, with bold lines and pleasingly stolid figures. Similarly, her life is interesting but fairly straightforward—this is not a memoir of war, abuse, or extreme marginalization. Sylvie, a White Jewish girl, is the target of some prejudicial labels for those born in North Africa and experiences mild anti-Semitism, something her mother is always on guard against; her mother is similarly obsessed with Sylvie’s being appropriately feminine. But the overall tone of this story is comforting, warm, calm, and deeply satisfying.
Quietly appealing for young readers with a taste for realism. (Graphic memoir. 9-13)Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0762-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Walker US/Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
While the historical record is regrettably light on this Shoshone teenager, Berne stitches together a compelling narrative from what is known, taking care to bust myths along the way. Sacagawea had been kidnapped by the Hidatsa and sold or given to Toussaint Charbonneau as a wife before she was 14. Because she knew both the Shoshone and Hidatsa languages, she was seen as an invaluable link for communication to the Lewis and Clark expedition, which hired her French-Canadian trader husband. During the 16-month journey (1805-06), she acted as translator, located edible food and was a visible symbol of peace (no war party would have a woman), all the while carrying and nurturing her baby son, Jean-Baptiste. The author stresses the paucity of information even as she extrapolates what she can; Sacagawea's kindness and resourcefulness are evident from the Lewis and Clark records, for instance. Sidebars and illustrations enrich the account (about Native-American baby care, trade goods, Lewis’s Newfoundland dog, Seaman). Some repetition could have been edited out, but this is still a good addition to this biographical series. (glossary, bibliography, source notes, index) (Biography. 9-12)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4027-6845-3
Page Count: 124
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
More a historical narrative than a character portrait, this account of Tecumseh’s efforts to create a tribal confederacy in the Old Northwest focuses on the great Shawnee leader’s many battles and negotiations with then–Territorial Governor William Henry Harrison and then his disastrous—ultimately fatal—alliance with the British during the War of 1812. Replete with side essays on such varied subtopics as the Northwest Territory, the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-12 and the Battle of Lake Erie, it also boasts often–full-color illustrations from archival sources (many of these later paintings and old prints that are inaccurate, as the discursive captions often rightly note, and sometimes too small to make out anyway). In all, this will provide students a coherent view of events if not a clear understanding of Shawnee culture or Tecumseh’s heroic personal qualities. If it's not the 100-page holy grail of middle-grade biographies, it is still pretty close. (glossary, bibliography, source notes, index) (Biography. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4027-6847-7
Page Count: 124
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: Dec. 29, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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