Wheels out a chapter in the history of technology that merits greater recognition.
A dazzling gallery of early run-ups to the modern “safety” bike, with breezy commentary.
Nelson begins with the “clunky” German velocipede of 1817. While taking a cavalier approach to rhyme and meter, she chronicles successive inventions and refinements that at last delivered a vehicle that was able to handle rough American roads and was available to the general populace: “Women especially, were off with a zoom / in split skirts and high boots and bold pantaloons.” They were also cheap enough to go from being “just a toy for the wealthier classes” to “pedal-powered freedom / for the big, bustling masses.” The bouncy narrative is rich in specific references to inventors and early mechanisms. In vividly evocative galleries, races, and crowded street scenes, Bruno provides precisely detailed images of huge-wheeled penny farthings and other antique models, generally rattling past astonished spectators as beleaguered riders struggle to maintain control. Women strike confident poses, many of the men sport stylish mustaches and mutton chops beneath elegant top hats, and all the human figures, including dark-skinned ones in several scenes, look like fashion plates from various periods of the 19th and early 20th centuries. In her prose recap, the author notes that bicycles still provide economical, eco-friendly transportation. “Together,” she concludes, “we could pedal our way to a happier, healthier world.”
Wheels out a chapter in the history of technology that merits greater recognition. (bibliography) (Informational picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: June 4, 2024
ISBN: 9781536213928
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2024
Shot through with vague generalities and paired to a mix of equally generic period images and static new art, this overview remorselessly sucks all the juice from its topic.
This survey of the growth of industries in this country from the Colonial period to the post–World War II era is written in the driest of textbook-ese: “Factories needed good transportation so that materials could reach them and so that materials could reach buyers”; “The metal iron is obtained by heating iron ore”; “In 1860, the North said that free men, not slaves, should do the work.” This text is supplemented by a jumble of narrative-overview blocks, boxed side observations and terse captions on each thematic spread. The design is packed with overlapping, misleadingly seamless and rarely differentiated mixes of small, heavily trimmed contemporary prints or (later) photos and drab reconstructions of workshop or factory scenes, along with pictures of significant inventions and technological innovations (which are, in several cases, reduced to background design elements). The single, tiny map has no identifying labels. Other new entries in the All About America series deal similarly with Explorers, Trappers, and Pioneers, A Nation of Immigrants and Stagecoaches and Railroads. Utilitarian, at best—but more likely to dim reader interest than kindle it. (index, timeline, resource lists) (Nonfiction. 8-10)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7534-6670-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kingfisher
Review Posted Online: Dec. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
It’s an often-told story, but the author is still in a position to give it a unique perspective.
The author of Promises to Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed America (2004) tells her father’s tale again, for younger readers.
Though using a less personal tone this time and referring to herself in the third person, Robinson still devotes as much attention to his family life, youth and post-baseball career as she does to his achievements on the field. Writing in short sentences and simple language, she presents a clear picture of the era’s racial attitudes and the pressures he faced both in the military service and in baseball—offering plenty of clear reasons to regard him not just as a champion athlete, but as a hero too. An early remark about how he ran with “a bunch of black, Japanese, and Mexican boys” while growing up in Pasadena is insensitively phrased, and a sweeping claim that by 1949 “[t]he racial tension was broken” in baseball is simplistic. Nevertheless, by and large her account covers the bases adequately. The many photos include an admixture of family snapshots, and a closing Q-and-A allows the author to announce the imminent release of a new feature film about Robinson.
It’s an often-told story, but the author is still in a position to give it a unique perspective. (Biography. 8-10)Pub Date: March 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-54006-3
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
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