A genial salute to and from the original corps of children’s-literature ambassadors.
To celebrate 20 years of the U.K.’s Children’s Laureate program, the first 10 to be appointed to the position offer remarks on their craft.
The roster of contributors is heavy with honored names, bookended by Quentin Blake, the first laureate (1999-2001), who writes about stylistic relations between pictures and story, and Lauren Child (2017-2019), describing how her stories develop in a dynamic mix of writing and drawing. In between, Michael Rosen grows a poem from one funny-sounding word, “Bobble”; Michael Morpurgo ruminates on finding just the right voice; Jacqueline Wilson presents a short story in diary form; and Chris Riddell visually lays out a five-point strategy for making drawing a constant daily activity. Malorie Blackman, the only person of color in the lineup, follows a set of brainstorming questions with a fable written from three points of view. Some contributions, such as Morpurgo’s tale of a heroic librarian, “I Believe in Unicorns,” Anne Fine’s selection of original bookplates by various eminent illustrators, and Anthony Browne’s Shape Game, have appeared elsewhere in print or online, but the personal statements are new and the contents assembled in an appealingly informal way that invites younger audiences to the party as well as readers who have grown up with these authors and illustrators. Riddell’s caricatures at the end are alone worth the price of admission.
A genial salute to and from the original corps of children’s-literature ambassadors. (Anthology. 10-13)Pub Date: April 9, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0536-7
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Walker US/Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
A breezy, bustling bucketful of courageous acts and eye-popping feats.
Why should grown-ups get all the historical, scientific, athletic, cinematic, and artistic glory?
Choosing exemplars from both past and present, Mitchell includes but goes well beyond Alexander the Great, Anne Frank, and like usual suspects to introduce a host of lesser-known luminaries. These include Shapur II, who was formally crowned king of Persia before he was born, Indian dancer/professional architect Sheila Sri Prakash, transgender spokesperson Jazz Jennings, inventor Param Jaggi, and an international host of other teen or preteen activists and prodigies. The individual portraits range from one paragraph to several pages in length, and they are interspersed with group tributes to, for instance, the Nazi-resisting “Swingkinder,” the striking New York City newsboys, and the marchers of the Birmingham Children’s Crusade. Mitchell even offers would-be villains a role model in Elagabalus, “boy emperor of Rome,” though she notes that he, at least, came to an awful end: “Then, then! They dumped his remains in the Tiber River, to be nommed by fish for all eternity.” The entries are arranged in no evident order, and though the backmatter includes multiple booklists, a personality quiz, a glossary, and even a quick Braille primer (with Braille jokes to decode), there is no index. Still, for readers whose fires need lighting, there’s motivational kindling on nearly every page.
A breezy, bustling bucketful of courageous acts and eye-popping feats. (finished illustrations not seen) (Collective biography. 10-13)Pub Date: May 10, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-14-751813-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Puffin
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2015
More a historical narrative than a character portrait, this account of Tecumseh’s efforts to create a tribal confederacy in the Old Northwest focuses on the great Shawnee leader’s many battles and negotiations with then–Territorial Governor William Henry Harrison and then his disastrous—ultimately fatal—alliance with the British during the War of 1812. Replete with side essays on such varied subtopics as the Northwest Territory, the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-12 and the Battle of Lake Erie, it also boasts often–full-color illustrations from archival sources (many of these later paintings and old prints that are inaccurate, as the discursive captions often rightly note, and sometimes too small to make out anyway). In all, this will provide students a coherent view of events if not a clear understanding of Shawnee culture or Tecumseh’s heroic personal qualities. If it's not the 100-page holy grail of middle-grade biographies, it is still pretty close. (glossary, bibliography, source notes, index) (Biography. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4027-6847-7
Page Count: 124
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: Dec. 29, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2010
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