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PLYMOUTH ROCKS!

Name: PLYMOUTH ROCKS!
Author: Jane Yolen
ISBN: 978-1-58089-685-6

THE STONE-COLD TRUTH

by Jane Yolen ; illustrated by Sam Streed ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 8, 2020

The narrative isn’t substantial enough to sustain the needed counternarrative.

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Plymouth Rock is a great big liar. Fortunately, the googly-eyed, sentient hunk of granite has a fact checker, a bespectacled brown-skinned person with a very active red pen. Rock narrates in verse, informing readers of its glacial origins, the local wildlife, its Native neighbors, the arrival of English settlers, and the myths that gradually arose around it. As the rock versifies, the fact checker busily marks up Streed’s cartoon spreads. “Hold on a minute!” reads one note on a fulsome description of how “the tribes” met the settlers “with a great burst of friendship, food, community.” Another vigorously circled note reads, “Native people did greet the colonists and later shared food with them, but that is NOT the whole story.” It’s a clever device, allowing Rock to pontificate with corrective annotations to set the record straight, but unfortunately, Rock’s story (as opposed to the story of the humans around it) is not interesting enough to sustain 32 pages. In fact, it’s something of a snooze (it was moved, dropped, broken, chipped away at, be-plaqued, and literally enshrined). It’s critical that readers learn that “settlers didn’t just ‘find’ a new world, they colonized it” and that “the Native people…did not consider their world new,” but this may not be the best vehicle. The narrative isn’t substantial enough to sustain the needed counternarrative. (bibliography) (Informational picture book. 5-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-58089-685-6

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Charlesbridge

Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HISTORY

- BOOK REVIEW
WE CELEBRATE THE LIGHT
by Jane Yolen & Heidi E.Y. Stemple ; illustrated by Jieting Chen

- BOOK REVIEW
REBECCA'S PRAYER FOR PRESIDENT LINCOLN
by Jane Yolen ; illustrated by Laura Barella

- BOOK REVIEW
THE MANY PROBLEMS OF ROCHEL-LEAH
by Jane Yolen ; illustrated by Felishia Henditirto

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BEFORE SHE WAS HARRIET

by Lesa Cline-Ransome ; illustrated by James E. Ransome ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 7, 2017

A picture book more than worthy of sharing the shelf with Alan Schroeder and Jerry Pinkney’s Minty (1996) and Carole Boston...

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A memorable, lyrical reverse-chronological walk through the life of an American icon.

In free verse, Cline-Ransome narrates the life of Harriet Tubman, starting and ending with a train ride Tubman takes as an old woman. “But before wrinkles formed / and her eyes failed,” Tubman could walk tirelessly under a starlit sky. Cline-Ransome then describes the array of roles Tubman played throughout her life, including suffragist, abolitionist, Union spy, and conductor on the Underground Railroad. By framing the story around a literal train ride, the Ransomes juxtapose the privilege of traveling by rail against Harriet’s earlier modes of travel, when she repeatedly ran for her life. Racism still abounds, however, for she rides in a segregated train. While the text introduces readers to the details of Tubman’s life, Ransome’s use of watercolor—such a striking departure from his oil illustrations in many of his other picture books—reveals Tubman’s humanity, determination, drive, and hope. Ransome’s lavishly detailed and expansive double-page spreads situate young readers in each time and place as the text takes them further into the past.

A picture book more than worthy of sharing the shelf with Alan Schroeder and Jerry Pinkney’s Minty (1996) and Carole Boston Weatherford and Kadir Nelson’s Moses (2006). (Picture book/biography. 5-8)

Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-8234-2047-6

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Holiday House

Review Posted Online: Aug. 6, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017

Categories:

CHILDREN'S BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | CHILDREN'S HISTORY

- BOOK REVIEW
THEY CALL ME TEACH
by Lesa Cline-Ransome ; illustrated by James E. Ransome

- BOOK REVIEW
ONE BIG OPEN SKY
by Lesa Cline-Ransome

- BOOK REVIEW
FIGHTING WITH LOVE
by Lesa Cline-Ransome ; illustrated by James E. Ransome

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SURVIVOR TREE

by Marcie Colleen ; illustrated by Aaron Becker ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 31, 2021

A lovely 20th-anniversary tribute to the towers and all who perished—and survived.

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A remarkable tree stands where the twin towers of the World Trade Center once soared.

Through simple, tender text, readers learn the life-affirming story of a Callery pear tree that grew and today still flourishes “at the foot of the towers.” The author eloquently describes the pre-9/11 life of the “Survivor Tree” and its heartening, nearly decadelong journey to renewal following its recovery from the wreckage of the towers’ destruction. By tracking the tree’s journey through the natural cycle of seasonal changes and colors after it was found beneath “the blackened remains,” she tells how, after replanting and with loving care (at a nursery in the Bronx), the tree managed miraculously to flourish again. Retransplanted at the Sept. 11 memorial, it valiantly stands today, a symbol of new life and resilience. Hazy, delicate watercolor-and–colored pencil artwork powerfully traces the tree’s existence before and after the towers’ collapse; early pages include several snapshotlike insets capturing people enjoying the outdoors through the seasons. Scenes depicting the towers’ ruins are aptly somber yet hopeful, as they show the crushed tree still defiantly alive. The vivid changes that new seasons introduce are lovingly presented, reminding readers that life unceasingly renews itself. Many paintings are cast in a rosy glow, symbolizing that even the worst disasters can bring forth hope. People depicted are racially diverse. Backmatter material includes additional facts about the tree.

A lovely 20th-anniversary tribute to the towers and all who perished—and survived. (author's note, artist's note) (Informational picture book. 5-8)