Showing uncommon foresight, Thor bids adieu with a “See ya next time, kid!” Return trips are definitely in the offing.
Mortals, do you dare follow the god of “strength and weather and mighty muscles” on a tour through Norse mythology?
Warning that “if you don’t like blood, you might want to close this book and read stories about pixies and fairies instead” (as if), the hammer-wielding guide begins with an introduction to the Vikings and their way of, literally, cutting out the middleman to get to the plunder. He then goes on to describe the creation of the giants from the “sweaty armpit” of Ymir and subsequent battles with “Odin’s team of good-guy gods.” He then conducts a tour up Yggdrasill with stopovers at Niflheim, Midgard, and Asgard, then concludes with a jolly preview of the slaughter of Ragnarök, the “end of times” (but not really). The itinerary also includes a quick visit to Valhalla—“an endless zombie slumber party” for warriors who die in battle—among other stops. Prefaced by a proper caution that Norse myths and legends are, like all such, subject to regional and other variations, the genial guide’s patter includes references to other prominent figures and tales. Larson’s dark, operatic tableaux of melodramatically posed figures clad in outsized headgear and geometrically patterned cloaks add a comically Wagnerian tone.
Showing uncommon foresight, Thor bids adieu with a “See ya next time, kid!” Return trips are definitely in the offing. (list of gods and monsters, glossary, sources, map, index) (Mythology. 10-13)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-62091-599-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
A high spot in aviation history, particularly noteworthy for the rugged perseverance of those who achieved it.
An epic feat from an era in which radio was still newfangled and many people “had never seen an airplane, except in pictures.”
In fact, the U.S. Army aviators chosen for this 1924 expedition left radios behind—along with life preservers and parachutes—to lighten the load on their planes (they did take a pair of stuffed toy monkeys). Fortunately, as Grove, a Smithsonian educator, makes clear in a meticulous account based on journals and other documentary evidence, not only were diplomatic and other preparations made for each planned stop on the carefully mapped course, but the Navy provided near-continual monitoring. Not that the flight went smoothly: One of the four planes crashed into an Alaska mountain, and another sank in the North Atlantic. Along with awful weather (“The Aleutians have but two kinds of weather it seems, bad and worse,” wrote one pilot) and multiple forced landings, so rickety were the aircraft in general that wear and tear required multiple full engine replacements along the way. The flight took 150 days, and the aviators lost a bet with the Prince of Wales that he could beat them across the Atlantic by boat. Of six nations competing to be first to circle the globe, only the U.S. team was able to finish. It’s a grand tale, set handsomely here amid sheaves of maps, short journal passages and contemporary photos.
A high spot in aviation history, particularly noteworthy for the rugged perseverance of those who achieved it. (endnotes, summary charts, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 10-13)Pub Date: April 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4197-1482-5
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
Solidly historical and far more heartfelt than those on the overcrowded shelf of assignment-fodder profiles.
A reverent tribute to the great Hunkpapa chief and holy man, cast as a memoir with a rich array of new and contemporary illustrations.
Nelson also pays tribute (as he has elsewhere) to ledger-book art, with scenes done in that simple style. Here they depict, along with mystical symbols and traditional hunts and battles, a steamboat, a busy city street, the slaughter of women and children at Killdeer Mountain, Custer’s death (depicted as a suicide) at Little Big Horn, and Sitting Bull’s murder by a Lakota police officer. Sitting Bull himself, aptly named for a buffalo that would never back down, retraces in dignified language his early years, long struggles with the “wasichus” over invasions and broken promises, and his end. His is a strong voice, whether scorning subservient “Hang-Around-the-Forts” or commending his great contemporaries—of Crazy Horse: “He fought like a thunderstorm. I liked that man.” He closes with a stirring exhortation to “honor those traditions that still serve our people,” to “Brave up!” and to “go forth with a good heart.” The first-person narration makes this problematic as nonfiction, but the backmatter provides a wealth of information. Along with period photos distributed throughout and a detailed timeline of Lakota history up to Wounded Knee, Nelson’s lengthy closing notes on Lakota practices and spiritual beliefs will leave readers with a rich picture of this noble figure’s personal and cultural context.
Solidly historical and far more heartfelt than those on the overcrowded shelf of assignment-fodder profiles. (endnotes, bibliography, index) (Historical fiction. 10-13)Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4197-0731-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2015
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
