bookshelf

SO WHAT IS JUSTICE ANYWAY?

Name: SO WHAT IS JUSTICE ANYWAY?
Author: Chelsea Luthringer
ISBN: 0-8239-3096-3

by Chelsea Luthringer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 1, 1999

bookshelf

This well-written, informative entry in the Student’s Guide to American Civics series serves as a good introduction to a complex and sometimes controversial issue. A brief section covering the concept of justice and its connection to such ideas as rights and freedom is followed by chapters that show how justice relates to other social constructs: government, the legal system, incarceration, punishment, and due process. Examples of justice (and injustice) and how they relate to basic relations among people are given, and the worldwide struggle for justice is covered, as are two of its champions, Jane Addams and Martin Luther King Jr. The book is useful, and its flashy contemporary format and the striking photographs that will keep it circulating. (glossary, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 9-12)

Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-8239-3096-3

Page Count: 48

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL SCIENCES

bookshelf

CITY OF ANGELS

by Julie Jaskol & Brian Lewis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1999

bookshelf

Whirls of tiny, brightly dressed people’some with wings—fill Kleven’s kaleidoscopic portraits of sun-drenched Los Angeles neighborhoods and landmarks; the Los Angeles—based authors supply equally colorful accounts of the city’s growth, festivals, and citizens, using an appended chronology to squeeze in a few more anecdotes. As does Kathy Jakobsen’s My New York (1998), Jaskol and Lewis’s book captures a vivid sense of a major urban area’s bustle, diversity, and distinctive character; young Angelenos will get a hearty dose of civic pride, and children everywhere will find new details in the vibrant illustrations at every pass. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-10)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-525-46214-7

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL SCIENCES

bookshelf

NICKOMMOH!

A THANKSGIVING CELEBRATION

by Jackie French Koller ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1999

bookshelf

Koller (Bouncing on the Bed, p. 143, etc.) portrays a Narragansett nickommoh, or celebratory gathering, from which it is very likely the tradition of Thanksgiving was drawn. As explained in an exemplary note—brief, clear, interesting—at the end of the book, these gatherings occurred 13 times a year, once each lunar month. The harvest gathering is one of the larger gatherings: a great lodge was built, copious food was prepared, and music and dance extended deep into the night. Koller laces the text with a good selection of Narragansett words, found in the glossary (although there is no key to pronunciation, even for words such as Taqountikeeswush and Puttuckquapuonck). The text is written as a chanted prose poem, with much repetition, which can be both incantatory and hackneyed, as when “frost lies thick on the fields at dawn, and the winged ones pass overhead in great numbers.” Mostly the phrases are stirring—as are Sewall’s scratchboard evocations—and often inspirational—for this nickommoh puts to shame what has become known as the day before the launch of the holiday shopping season. (Picture book. 6-9)