A terrifically told story with striking design and illustrations that will empower its readers.
A lengthy picture book about a female ninja in 16th-century Japan.
Mochizuki Chiyome lives in the Koga region of feudal Japan, where constant warfare between warlords called daimyos creates the need for both samurais and ninjas. Chiyome’s great-grandfather was a famous ninja, and she is training to be one too. Her arduous preparation includes dangling from a cliff as well as more subtle skills, such as hensojutsu, the art of disguise. After years of training, she becomes a ninja only to be married off to Mochizuki Moritoki, the nephew of a powerful daimyo. When her husband is killed in battle, Chiyome—whose choices as a widow are either taking care of other women’s children or retreating to a spiritual life—convinces her uncle-in-law to take advantage of her ninja skills. She recruits and trains a network of female ninjas to spy for him. Kyi’s bracing text (based on some real historical figures, as revealed in an epilogue) gives a vivid sense of detail and danger, although it’s too bad the illustrated map of 16th-century feudal Japan does not clearly mark the locations referenced in the story. The book’s design is otherwise stellar. Japanese landscape paintings bordered with stylized patterns combine smoothly with Krampien’s bold, emotive illustrations, heightening the overall ambience and tone of the story.
A terrifically told story with striking design and illustrations that will empower its readers. (glossary, further reading, sources) (Picture book. 8-14)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-55451-966-8
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
Overall, the stories are engaging and inspiring, from the tribulations that came upon Emancipation to the strange new world...
Brief fictional sketches walk readers through 150 years of American history.
Arato takes nine powerful slices of American history—such as Valley Forge, the Second Battle of Bull Run, the Gold Rush, the founding of the Perkins School for the Blind and Berea College, Hull House, the Johnstown Flood—and wraps them in neat, emotive, unvarnished stories that feature a day in the life of a child caught up in the action. Shannon introduces each segment with an atmospheric illustration, Disney-like scene-setters that function as launching pads for the affecting tales. One may be as plain as the miseries of war—“The Union army regrouped at Bull Run under a pall of defeat so thick, it seemed to suck the air from the sky”—while another may take a more psychological air, as one boy hides a gold nugget so his father can’t gamble it away. Only rarely does the author let the sheer fervor of the story lead her onto shaky ground: Did the Oneida Nation really consider the Revolutionary War as “our cause,” or as a strategic alliance? (She clarifies in a fact-based endnote—one accompanies each chapter—that the Oneidas were ultimately given the raw end of the stick, their treaty lands diminished from 6 million acres to 32 acres.)
Overall, the stories are engaging and inspiring, from the tribulations that came upon Emancipation to the strange new world opened to Chinese workers recruited for the Transcontinental Railroad to the pure brilliance of a school for the blind. (Historical fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-926818-91-7
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Owlkids Books
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This is history at its best, an original and appealing way to mark the centennial of this familiar disaster.
A memorial edition of an imagined magazine covers the construction and fateful voyage of the R.M.S. Titanic, Queen of the Ocean, which sank in April 1912.
As in Lincoln Shot! (2008), the design alludes to the historical period, here using the dimensions and sepia tones of an old-time newspaper supplement. Visually dramatic pages are filled with photos and memorabilia as well as eyewitness accounts that add to the “You are there” effect. The first third of Denenberg’s narrative consists of articles purportedly published between 1903 and 1912, the second is the unfinished (and miraculously recovered) journal of the magazine’s correspondent. The final section includes a chronology of the ship’s final hours, statements from survivors and an interview with the captain of the rescue ship, all based on actual testimony. A “note from the publisher” closes the narrative with a short round-up of what followed. This is a story of heroism as well as personal and corporate greed, issues that still resonate today. The text is lively, compelling and convincing, but written to answer 21st-century readers’ questions. Because readers know the outcome, many of the chosen quotations sound ironic, especially cheerful reiterations that the ship is unsinkable.
This is history at its best, an original and appealing way to mark the centennial of this familiar disaster. (author’s note, source notes, bibliography) (Nonfiction.10-14)Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-670-01243-5
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
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