Aims for charm and historical import but achieves neither.
Between 1927 and 1999, a house sees four families move in and depart in a picture book adapted from the author’s 2016 book for adults of the same name.
As in Virginia Lee Burton’s classic The Little House (1942), the house itself is the story’s hub. Perched lakeside near Berlin, this house alternately feels “happy,” “abandoned and unloved,” and “alive.” Descriptions of the residents are similarly romantic: “a kind doctor and his cheery wife”; “the musical family”; “a man with a fluffy hat.” How jarring, then, for the families to be coming and going due to events such as genocide, and how much more jarring for those events to be only vaguely implied. Little boys grow from playing in the sand to wearing Hitler Youth uniforms, but the uniforms aren’t identified. World War II and the Berlin Wall go unnamed too, while Nazis are called only “angry men.” The fluffy-hatted man “spie[s] on his neighbors”—huh? Why? This evasive piece sidesteps atrocities and even bare historical details. Readers who already know enough pertinent history to understand Harding’s subtle allusions aren’t the same readers who’d enjoy a lakeside house’s seasonal and emotional cycles. An author’s note supplies names and dates but still never delves into explaining the Nazis, Hitler Youth, or the Berlin Wall; it identifies which families were Jewish but never says why that’s relevant. Teckentrup’s textured artwork is similarly allusive, including a terrifying scene of aerial bombardment and another of a line of tanks but still failing to fill in the narrative gaps. All characters depicted have pale skin.
Aims for charm and historical import but achieves neither. (Informational picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5362-1274-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Candlewick Studio
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
All rise to this evocative, empowering offering.
Here’s the inspiring story of how ordinary citizens helped the Statue of Liberty literally stand up.
In spring 1885, Lady Liberty sailed from France, packed in pieces in 214 crates, and waited on what was to be renamed Liberty Island in New York Harbor. The pedestal on which France’s gift to the United States was to stand was barely half built; the money had run out, and New York’s wealthiest refused to underwrite its completion. Enter Joseph Pulitzer, publisher of the New York World. To encourage the public’s generosity, he promised to print the name of every contributor to the pedestal fund, no matter how tiny the amount donated. Money flooded in from around the country, much of it from children who relinquished savings set aside for desired treats. The campaign raised $100,000, and, with additional funds from Congress, the pedestal was completed. Finally, Lady Liberty was assembled and installed, and a grand parade and flotilla celebrated her in October 1886. Sparkling language movingly describes how everyday folks effected powerful change. Readers will relish knowing that kids played a pivotal role in the campaign; many actual quotes from children are included. Lively, colorful illustrations capturing the period depict diverse characters and wonderful perspectives; a 90-degree turn of the book near the end sets Liberty against a fireworks backdrop. The backmatter includes fascinating informative material. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-22-inch double-page spreads viewed at 45.5% of actual size.)
All rise to this evocative, empowering offering. (timeline, further facts, bibliography, photos) (Informational picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: March 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-22588-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021
The right stuff for children with the stars in their eyes.
A look back at a child who loved to look at the stars and grew up to become the first U.S. astronaut to walk in space.
In Wellins’ rhymed narrative, and also Dawson’s views of a wide-eyed child and then man looking up and out in nearly every scene, biographical and technological details take a back seat to expressions of a bright and enduring sense of wonder—so that whether it was his mom or, later, Houston telling White it was time to cut the stargazing and come back inside, he always went “so slow…so slow.” The author ends by underscoring his attachment to family (“Moons and stars / are lovely places, / but not as nice as / children’s faces”), reserving mention of his tragic death in the Apollo 1 fire for the closing historical note. The astronaut and his family are White in the illustrations, but most of the figures placed around him as an adult at NASA and elsewhere are people of color. Readers will have to look elsewhere, in more-developed profiles of the Apollo missions or the late Kathleen Krull’s Fly High, John Glenn, illustrated by Maurizio A.C. Quarello (2020), for instance, for rounded pictures of the early space program’s heroes; White himself comes off here as a cardboard figure, but the main story is really the heights to which his profound fascination with the night sky led. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-18-inch double-page spreads viewed at 85% of actual size.)
The right stuff for children with the stars in their eyes. (timeline, photographs) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-11804-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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