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ALWAYS INVENTING

Name: ALWAYS INVENTING
Author: Tom L. Matthews
ISBN: 0-7922-7391-5

A PHOTOBIOGRAPHY OF ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL

by Tom L. Matthews ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1999

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A memorable tribute to a notably versatile inventor: From his first invention at age 11 to his last, 64 years later, Bell “recorded everything, sketched every idea, documented every experiment.” Clearly, Matthews does not lack for source material, but rather than weigh readers down with a long recitation of accomplishments, he covers some high spots (the telephone, Bell’s work with the deaf, experiments in flight, and his role in the National Geographic Society) on the way to creating a character study, a portrait of a man who both earned and knew how to enjoy success, and who never lost his sense of wonder. The fluent text is matched to an expertly chosen array of photographs, encompassing not only family scenes and closeups of small, complex devices, but such seldom-seen treasures as Mark Twain’s telephone bill, and a choked mass of wires suspended over New York City’s Broadway. So upbeat is the tone that the tragedies and challenges in Bell’s life seem downplayed, but readers will come away with a good sense of who the man was and what he did. (chronology, bibliography, index) (Biography. 9-12)

Pub Date: March 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-7922-7391-5

Page Count: 64

Publisher: National Geographic

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | CHILDREN'S HISTORY | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

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ALL BY HERSELF

POEMS

by Ann Whitford Paul ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1999

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Prose poems celebrate the feats of young heroines, some of them famous, and some not as well-known. Paul (Hello Toes! Hello Feet!, 1998, etc.) recounts moments in the lives of women such as Rachel Carson, Amelia Earhart, and Wilma Rudolph; these moments don’t necessarily reflect what made them famous as much as they are pivotal events in their youth that influenced the direction of their lives. For Earhart, it was sliding down the roof of the tool shed in a home-made roller coaster: “It’s like flying!” For Rudolph, it was the struggle to learn to walk without her foot brace. Other women, such as Violet Sheehy, who rescued her family from a fire in Hinckley, Minnesota, or Harriet Hanson, a union supporter in the fabric mills of Massachusetts, are celebrated for their brave decisions made under extreme duress. Steirnagle’s sweeping paintings powerfully exude the strength of character exhibited by these young women. A commemorative book, that honors both quiet and noisy acts of heroism. (Picture book/poetry. 6-9)

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-15-201477-2

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S POETRY | CHILDREN'S BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR

- BOOK REVIEW
IF ANIMALS TRICK-OR-TREATED
by Ann Whitford Paul ; illustrated by David Walker

- BOOK REVIEW
WHO LOVES LITTLE LEMUR?
by Ann Whitford Paul ; illustrated by Jay Fleck

- BOOK REVIEW
IF ANIMALS GAVE THANKS
by Ann Whitford Paul ; illustrated by David Walker

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IF A BUS COULD TALK

THE STORY OF ROSA PARKS

by Faith Ringgold ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1999

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Ringgold’s biography of Rosa Parks packs substantial material into a few pages, but with a light touch, and with the ring of authenticity that gives her act of weary resistance all the respect it deserves. Narrating the book is the bus that Parks took that morning 45 years ago; it recounts the signal events in Parks’s life to a young girl who boarded it to go to school. A decent amount of the material will probably be new to children, for Parks is so intimately associated with the Montgomery Bus Boycott that her work with the NAACP before the bus incident is often overlooked, as is her later role as a community activist in Detroit with Congressman John Conyers. Ringgold, through the bus, also informs readers of Parks’s youth in rural Alabama, where Klansmen and nightriders struck fear into the lives of African-Americans. These experiences make her refusal to release her seat all the more courageous, for the consequences of resistance were not gentle. All the events are depicted in emotive naive artwork that underscores their truth; Ringgold delivers Parks’s story without hyperbole, but rather as a life lived with pride, conviction, and consequence. (Picture book/biography. 5-9)