A noteworthy tale of a young Jewish athlete taking a personal stand.
From the moment young Estee Ackerman picked up a Ping-Pong paddle, she fell in love with the game.
Estee started winning against her family and then entered tournaments, but never on Saturdays, the Jewish Shabbat, a day of rest. At age 11, in 2013, she qualified for the finals at the U.S. National Table Tennis Championships. But when she realized she was scheduled to play on a Saturday, Estee decided that she’d follow the tradition of not working or playing athletic games on Shabbat. “She was sad she had missed the chance at a gold medal. But she knew she had made the choice that was right for her.” When a reporter wrote about her dilemma, other articles followed, and many supported her difficult decision. Luckily, next year, finals were scheduled for a Monday, and Estee won! The straightforward text highlights Estee’s skill and independence. Those with religious ideals will most appreciate this book, but other thoughtful readers will understand the importance of Estee making up her own mind, especially when her family says, “It’s up to you, Estee.” The illustrations have an action-oriented cartoon quality and incorporate onomatopoeic Ping-Pong ball sounds. Filled with swirling stars, the Shabbat scenes shine with familial warmth. Estee’s family is light-skinned, and her dad and brother wear yarmulkes. Backmatter notes that Estee is currently enrolled in Yeshiva University and training in the hopes of joining the U.S. Olympic Table Tennis Team.
A noteworthy tale of a young Jewish athlete taking a personal stand. (in Estee’s own words) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9781499816099
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses.
An NBA star pays tribute to the influence of his grandfather.
In the same vein as his Long Shot (2009), illustrated by Frank Morrison, this latest from Paul prioritizes values and character: “My granddad Papa Chilly had dreams that came true,” he writes, “so maybe if I listen and watch him, / mine will too.” So it is that the wide-eyed Black child in the simply drawn illustrations rises early to get to the playground hoops before anyone else, watches his elder working hard and respecting others, hears him cheering along with the rest of the family from the stands during games, and recalls in a prose afterword that his grandfather wasn’t one to lecture but taught by example. Paul mentions in both the text and the backmatter that Papa Chilly was the first African American to own a service station in North Carolina (his presumed dream) but not that he was killed in a robbery, which has the effect of keeping the overall tone positive and the instructional content one-dimensional. Figures in the pictures are mostly dark-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-81003-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
Blandly laudatory.
The iconic animator introduces young readers to each “happy place” in his life.
The tally begins with his childhood home in Marceline, Missouri, and climaxes with Disneyland (carefully designed to be “the happiest place on Earth”), but the account really centers on finding his true happy place, not on a map but in drawing. In sketching out his early flubs and later rocket to the top, the fictive narrator gives Ub Iwerks and other Disney studio workers a nod (leaving his labor disputes with them unmentioned) and squeezes in quick references to his animated films, from Steamboat Willie to Winnie the Pooh (sans Fantasia and Song of the South). Eliopoulos incorporates stills from the films into his cartoon illustrations and, characteristically for this series, depicts Disney as a caricature, trademark mustache in place on outsized head even in childhood years and child sized even as an adult. Human figures default to white, with occasional people of color in crowd scenes and (ahistorically) in the animation studio. One unidentified animator builds up the role-modeling with an observation that Walt and Mickey were really the same (“Both fearless; both resourceful”). An assertion toward the end—“So when do you stop being a child? When you stop dreaming”—muddles the overall follow-your-bliss message. A timeline to the EPCOT Center’s 1982 opening offers photos of the man with select associates, rodent and otherwise. An additional series entry, I Am Marie Curie, publishes simultaneously, featuring a gowned, toddler-sized version of the groundbreaking physicist accepting her two Nobel prizes.
Blandly laudatory. (bibliography) (Picture book/biography. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-7352-2875-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
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