NEVER TOO YOUNG!

People from different countries and eras who have achieved significant accomplishments by the age of 18 are the subjects of this contemporary collective biography, which opposes jaunty, intensely colored portraits against breezy, one-page descriptions.

Under each illustration, there is often a personal quotation. For example, Katie Stagliano, who started a foundation called Katie’s Krops that encourages young people to grow vegetables to feed the hungry, said: “I believe that youth have the power to do incredible things.” Indeed. Pablo Picasso, Louis Armstrong, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Clara Schumann are well-known for having developed their talents early. Perhaps the more interesting figures are the kids who are still teenagers or in their early 20s now. Young women, including trans woman activist Jazz Jennings, and young men from countries including the U.S., Canada, Zambia, India, Pakistan, Brazil, and Syria are among the currently living biographees. Joining Malala Yousafzai are Mongolian Aisholpan Nurgaiv, a champion eagle hunter (unusual both for her age and gender), and Rhode Islander Nicholas Lowinger, a young Jew who founded Gotta Have Sole, an organization that provides new shoes to kids in homeless shelters. Unfortunately, there are no source notes or bibliography, and while the selections are gender-balanced and laudably diverse, there are few Latinx people, and the only Native Americans are Sacagawea and Pocahontas.

Will give some readers inspiration and ideas for ways that they can help their own communities right now (Collective biography. 9-12)