This energetic portrait of the first highly recognized female skateboarder highlights her innovation and skill.
“Zip! Swoosh! Zoom!”
In this lively tale of the first female professional skateboarder, clear, direct text and bright, appealing illustrations combine to show how champion Patti McGee first used a homemade skateboard and then went on to hone her skills and join an early skateboarding team made up of boys. The first skater to perform a rolling handstand in competition, she was also the first woman to win a national competition (with a perfect score), and the text focuses on her excitement, focus, and dedication. Meanwhile the illustrations show a spunky, Gidget-like White girl learning to perform specific skills, which are helpfully labeled. The primary narrative is a bit light on detail (the fact that she was entering a female division and received a smaller trophy than the boys did is covered in the endnotes rather than the body of the text) and leaves readers unmoored in time (the 1950s-’60s era is also not stated till the backmatter—and readers never learn how old she was when she began skateboarding or won her championship). Still, the story and pictures themselves bubble with excitement and enthusiasm, and the endnotes provide more information on her influence and explain how she graced the covers of magazines, inspired other girls, toured after her win, and later taught skateboarding. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-17-inch double-page spreads viewed at 78.6% of actual size.)
This energetic portrait of the first highly recognized female skateboarder highlights her innovation and skill. (sources) (Picture book/biography. 5-8)Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-374-31399-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses.
An NBA star pays tribute to the influence of his grandfather.
In the same vein as his Long Shot (2009), illustrated by Frank Morrison, this latest from Paul prioritizes values and character: “My granddad Papa Chilly had dreams that came true,” he writes, “so maybe if I listen and watch him, / mine will too.” So it is that the wide-eyed Black child in the simply drawn illustrations rises early to get to the playground hoops before anyone else, watches his elder working hard and respecting others, hears him cheering along with the rest of the family from the stands during games, and recalls in a prose afterword that his grandfather wasn’t one to lecture but taught by example. Paul mentions in both the text and the backmatter that Papa Chilly was the first African American to own a service station in North Carolina (his presumed dream) but not that he was killed in a robbery, which has the effect of keeping the overall tone positive and the instructional content one-dimensional. Figures in the pictures are mostly dark-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-81003-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
A picture book more than worthy of sharing the shelf with Alan Schroeder and Jerry Pinkney’s Minty (1996) and Carole Boston...
A memorable, lyrical reverse-chronological walk through the life of an American icon.
In free verse, Cline-Ransome narrates the life of Harriet Tubman, starting and ending with a train ride Tubman takes as an old woman. “But before wrinkles formed / and her eyes failed,” Tubman could walk tirelessly under a starlit sky. Cline-Ransome then describes the array of roles Tubman played throughout her life, including suffragist, abolitionist, Union spy, and conductor on the Underground Railroad. By framing the story around a literal train ride, the Ransomes juxtapose the privilege of traveling by rail against Harriet’s earlier modes of travel, when she repeatedly ran for her life. Racism still abounds, however, for she rides in a segregated train. While the text introduces readers to the details of Tubman’s life, Ransome’s use of watercolor—such a striking departure from his oil illustrations in many of his other picture books—reveals Tubman’s humanity, determination, drive, and hope. Ransome’s lavishly detailed and expansive double-page spreads situate young readers in each time and place as the text takes them further into the past.
A picture book more than worthy of sharing the shelf with Alan Schroeder and Jerry Pinkney’s Minty (1996) and Carole Boston Weatherford and Kadir Nelson’s Moses (2006). (Picture book/biography. 5-8)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2047-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
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