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IRENA'S CHILDREN

Name: IRENA'S CHILDREN
Author: Tilar J. Mazzeo
ISBN: 978-1-4814-4991-5

YOUNG READERS EDITION

by Tilar J. Mazzeo ; adapted by Mary Cronk Farrell ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 27, 2016

Readers will understand how Sendler came to be honored by Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial as one of the Righteous...

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In Jewish belief, there are righteous people in every generation who can repair a tear in the universe. Irena Sendler was truly one of them.

Born into a comfortable Polish Catholic family, Irena had many Jewish friends growing up, and they shared idealistic beliefs. When the Germans invaded Poland and set off World War II, she was determined to assist the Jewish population in any way possible, especially those in the walled-off Warsaw ghetto. Carrying necessary papers she was able to enter and leave the ghetto. She and like-minded Poles rescued as many as 2,500 Jewish children, carefully recording names and keeping them in a jar (never found). She kept up her mission even as conditions within the walls became worse, as starvation, disease, the “murderous brutality” of the German occupying forces, and deportations to extermination camps grew in intensity. Even arrest, torture, and a miraculous release from certain death did not stop her. Farrell’s adaptation of Mazzeo’s adult title (2016) clearly presents her life and the ever present reality of death in a sobering, heartbreaking narrative.

Readers will understand how Sendler came to be honored by Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial as one of the Righteous Among the Nations. (black-and-white photographs, adapter’s note, endnotes not seen) (Biography. 12-18)

Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-4814-4991-5

Page Count: 288

Publisher: McElderry

Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | CHILDREN'S HISTORY

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MY HEROES, MY PEOPLE

AFRICAN AMERICANS AND NATIVE AMERICANS IN THE WEST

by Morgan Monceaux with Ruth Katcher ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 10, 1999

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Self-taught painter Monceaux (Jazz: My Music, My People, 1994) follows up his first book with this collection of African- American and Native American figures from the American West. He has, again, created his own form for historical and biographical portraiture, combining individual profiles and textual elements into a visually stirring montage. As with Faith Ringgold’s story quilts, this primitive style incorporates collage (bits of buttons, bells, ribbons, lace, feathers), and crowns each figure with hastily scribbled biographical notes. The legendary Pocahontas, Geronimo, and Bill Pickett appear alongside lesser-known people who were cowboys, marshals, soldiers, lawyers, artists, nurses, outlaws, and stagecoach drivers of the Old West. Arranged in loose categories (“Fur Trade,” “Buffalo Soldiers,” “Women,” etc.), the portraits are accompanied by brief biographical sketches that tantalize readers, and leave them wanting to know more. To that end, extensive notes on sources and further reading is included. (Nonfiction. 10+)

Pub Date: Nov. 10, 1999

ISBN: 0-374-30770-9

Page Count: 64

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1999

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION | CHILDREN'S BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR

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FREEDOM'S A-CALLIN ME

by Ntozake Shange & illustrated by Rod Brown ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 2012

Inspirational pairings of art and verse to read and recite in tribute to those who walked that perilous road.

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One slave is the poetic voice for those who toil on a cotton plantation and look to the North Star, following the Underground Railroad to freedom.

Shange wrote the poems in response to Brown's paintings and provides a sound stage for not only the many men and women who sought freedom but also those who were fearful of leaving. The dramatic oil paintings open in the stark white of the cotton fields. In the following tableaux, slaves are whipped, run through swamps, barely ahead of trackers and their dogs, and receive help from white abolitionists and Sojourner Truth. One powerful double-page spread shows a runaway hiding under floor boards, with slivers of light coming through. The end of the road finally comes in Michigan, where white snow on ground and trees serves as a beautiful counterpoint to the opening scene. Painter and poet previously collaborated on We Troubled the Waters (2009), and in this volume they have created a focused narrative that is troubling, violent and soul-stirring. In the title poem, the man says “ah may get tired / good Lawd / ah may may be free.”

Inspirational pairings of art and verse to read and recite in tribute to those who walked that perilous road. (Picture book/poetry. 12 & up)