bookshelf

I WAS DREAMING TO COME TO AMERICA

Name: I WAS DREAMING TO COME TO AMERICA
Author: Veronica Lawlor
ISBN: 0-670-86164-2

MEMORIES FROM THE ELLIS ISLAND ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 1995

bookshelf

Fifteen memories of Ellis Island—taken from interviews with immigrants who arrived in the early 1900s—add up to the American dream come true. With few exceptions, these simple accounts come from ordinary people (brief biographies on each appear in the back of the book). They got married, became citizens, worked as salesmen, dressmakers, real estate agents. But in each one the first sight of this new land, so strange it was like ``going to the moon,'' inspired eloquent and moving reflections. Ellis Island is described in its enormity, like ``a whole city in one building,'' but also as a place where the children were given warm milk twice a day ``in small little paper cups.'' There is music and camaraderie in steerage; permanent separations from family back home (``you don't have no mother no more''); and a reunion with a somehow familiar- looking stranger (``I didn't know he was my father''). Perfectly matching the selections of her first book, Lawlor's cut-paper collages, like dreams in flight, celebrate the only country where ``you're not a stranger because we're all strangers,'' and a time when America's sacred promise of freedom from fear and want could be held out to all. (Picture book/nonfiction. 10-14)

Pub Date: June 1, 1995

ISBN: 0-670-86164-2

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1995

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

bookshelf

A YEAR DOWN YONDER

From the Grandma Dowdel series , Vol. 2

by Richard Peck ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2000

Year-round fun.

bookshelf

Set in 1937 during the so-called “Roosevelt recession,” tight times compel Mary Alice, a Chicago girl, to move in with her grandmother, who lives in a tiny Illinois town so behind the times that it doesn’t “even have a picture show.”

This winning sequel takes place several years after A Long Way From Chicago (1998) leaves off, once again introducing the reader to Mary Alice, now 15, and her Grandma Dowdel, an indomitable, idiosyncratic woman who despite her hard-as-nails exterior is able to see her granddaughter with “eyes in the back of her heart.” Peck’s slice-of-life novel doesn’t have much in the way of a sustained plot; it could almost be a series of short stories strung together, but the narrative never flags, and the book, populated with distinctive, soulful characters who run the gamut from crazy to conventional, holds the reader’s interest throughout. And the vignettes, some involving a persnickety Grandma acting nasty while accomplishing a kindness, others in which she deflates an overblown ego or deals with a petty rivalry, are original and wildly funny. The arena may be a small hick town, but the battle for domination over that tiny turf is fierce, and Grandma Dowdel is a canny player for whom losing isn’t an option. The first-person narration is infused with rich, colorful language—“She was skinnier than a toothpick with termites”—and Mary Alice’s shrewd, prickly observations: “Anybody who thinks small towns are friendlier than big cities lives in a big city.”

Year-round fun. (Fiction. 11-13)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2000

ISBN: 978-0-8037-2518-8

Page Count: 144

Publisher: Dial Books

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2000

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
THE BEST MAN
by Richard Peck

- BOOK REVIEW
THE MOUSE WITH THE QUESTION MARK TAIL
by Richard Peck ; illustrated by Kelly Murphy

- BOOK REVIEW
SECRETS AT SEA
by Richard Peck illustrated by Kelly Murphy

bookshelf

PERCY JACKSON'S GREEK GODS

by Rick Riordan ; illustrated by John Rocco ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 19, 2014

The inevitable go-to for Percy’s legions of fans who want the stories behind his stories.

bookshelf

Percy Jackson takes a break from adventuring to serve up the Greek gods like flapjacks at a church breakfast.

Percy is on form as he debriefs readers concerning Chaos, Gaea, Ouranos and Pontus, Dionysus, Ariadne and Persephone, all in his dude’s patter: “He’d forgotten how beautiful Gaea could be when she wasn’t all yelling up in his face.” Here they are, all 12 Olympians, plus many various offspring and associates: the gold standard of dysfunctional families, whom Percy plays like a lute, sometimes lyrically, sometimes with a more sardonic air. Percy’s gift, which is no great secret, is to breathe new life into the gods. Closest attention is paid to the Olympians, but Riordan has a sure touch when it comes to fitting much into a small space—as does Rocco’s artwork, which smokes and writhes on the page as if hit by lightning—so readers will also meet Makaria, “goddess of blessed peaceful deaths,” and the Theban Teiresias, who accidentally sees Athena bathing. She blinds him but also gives him the ability to understand the language of birds. The atmosphere crackles and then dissolves, again and again: “He could even send the Furies after living people if they committed a truly horrific crime—like killing a family member, desecrating a temple, or singing Journey songs on karaoke night.”

The inevitable go-to for Percy’s legions of fans who want the stories behind his stories. (Mythology. 10-14)