Swanson invites readers to return to those thrilling days of yesteryear when “pioneers” hot for gold or land invaded the “untamed lands in the West,” drove fierce, faceless “Natives” into submission, transformed into cowboys or badmen (or both), and proceeded to either drink and gamble their meager wages away in saloons frequented by “hurdy-girls,” or to be strung up by vigilantes. Illustrated with a mix of melodramatic Charles Russell paintings and oddly sedate old photos, here is the Myth of the Wild West at its most romanticized—or nearly so, as the author does at least refer to female non-floozies, African-Americans, and racism. Readers after a truer picture would do better to decline his invitation in favor of studies closer to primary sources, such as Michael V. Uschan’s Westward Expansion (2001) or Russell Freedman’s Cowboys of the Wild West (1985). (Nonfiction. 9-11)
Pub Date: June 1, 2004
ISBN: 1-55037-837-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2004
Arnold and Hewett (Stories in Stone, 1996, etc.) record the harrowing rescue of a baby gray whale who had become separated from her mother off the coast of California. She was discovered on January 10, 1997, exhausted, hungry, and near death. J.J. was 14 feet long when she was brought to SeaWorld as a young calf. Gaining 900 pounds in the first month, she had to be moved to a new home by crane. Her caretakers started planning on giving J.J. skills so that she could be released and survive on her own in the ocean. Divers put her food on the bottom of the pool, each day in a different location, so she could practice searching. Arnold is relaxed in her telling, allowing the already dramatic events to unfold naturally: “Everyone cheered as J.J. took a big breath, dove deep, and disappeared. The young whale was on her own.” Full-color photos capture the excitement of J.J.’s release, but also the hard work of preparing her for her return to the sea. (Picture book/nonfiction. 5-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-8167-4961-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PLB 0-06-027821-8 For Aliki (Marianthe’s Story, 1998, etc.), the story of the Globe Theatre is a tale of two men: Shakespeare, who made it famous, and Sam Wanamaker, the driving force behind its modern rebuilding. Decorating margins with verbal and floral garlands, Aliki creates a cascade of landscapes, crowd scenes, diminutive portraits, and sequential views, all done with her trademark warmth and delicacy of line, allowing viewers to glimpse Elizabethan life and theater, historical sites that still stand, and the raising of the new Globe near the ashes of the old. She finishes with a play list, and a generous helping of Shakespearean coinages. Though the level of information doesn’t reach that of Diane Stanley’s Bard of Avon (1992), this makes a serviceable introduction to Shakespeare’s times while creating a link between those times and the present; further tempt young readers for whom the play’s the thing with Marcia Williams’s Tales From Shakespeare (1998). (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-10)
Pub Date: May 31, 1999
ISBN: 0-06-027820-X
Page Count: 48
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1999
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