Not for everyone—but a potential delight for the old at heart.
The author recalls her bucolic childhood in St. John’s, Newfoundland, before World War II.
As the title suggests, Morgan organizes her first-person, past-tense narration seasonally, beginning in spring, when kids, “released from winter’s bulky snow-pants and gaiters,” played in empty fields. Children “learned everything about the known world” at “the supper table,” where the author’s father “worried constantly about money.” During summer, kids explored hilly streets, visited neighborhood shops with “marvellous things to smell and look at,” and watched local craftsmen at work. In her father’s carpentry shop, Morgan piled curly shavings on her head, pretending to be Shirley Temple. She warily started kindergarten in fall, disappointed to discover she was the only child wearing glasses and wasn’t the “smartest or prettiest.” Winter brought kids indoors to amuse themselves or listen to stories around the woodstove. The family’s annual trip downtown to view Christmas toys provided the seasonal highlight. Nostalgic prose lovingly describes a simpler, safer time, when Newfoundland was an independent country and before World War II and Canadian provincial status in 1949 changed everything. Colorful, impressionistic, whimsical pencil and watercolor illustrations vividly capture the childlike wonder and bygone atmosphere of a world “about to vanish.” St. John’s is represented as an all-white community. There is no real plot to hold these dense descriptions together, which may prove off-putting to younger readers.
Not for everyone—but a potential delight for the old at heart. (author’s note) (Picture book/memoir. 10-adult)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-927917-18-3
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Running the Goat
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2018
A breezy, bustling bucketful of courageous acts and eye-popping feats.
Why should grown-ups get all the historical, scientific, athletic, cinematic, and artistic glory?
Choosing exemplars from both past and present, Mitchell includes but goes well beyond Alexander the Great, Anne Frank, and like usual suspects to introduce a host of lesser-known luminaries. These include Shapur II, who was formally crowned king of Persia before he was born, Indian dancer/professional architect Sheila Sri Prakash, transgender spokesperson Jazz Jennings, inventor Param Jaggi, and an international host of other teen or preteen activists and prodigies. The individual portraits range from one paragraph to several pages in length, and they are interspersed with group tributes to, for instance, the Nazi-resisting “Swingkinder,” the striking New York City newsboys, and the marchers of the Birmingham Children’s Crusade. Mitchell even offers would-be villains a role model in Elagabalus, “boy emperor of Rome,” though she notes that he, at least, came to an awful end: “Then, then! They dumped his remains in the Tiber River, to be nommed by fish for all eternity.” The entries are arranged in no evident order, and though the backmatter includes multiple booklists, a personality quiz, a glossary, and even a quick Braille primer (with Braille jokes to decode), there is no index. Still, for readers whose fires need lighting, there’s motivational kindling on nearly every page.
A breezy, bustling bucketful of courageous acts and eye-popping feats. (finished illustrations not seen) (Collective biography. 10-13)Pub Date: May 10, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-14-751813-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Puffin
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2015
Humble, endearing and utterly easy to relate to; don’t miss this one.
The charismatic creator of the Eisner-nominated Amelia Rules! series recounts his beginnings as a cartoonist.
From the very first panel, Gownley’s graphic memoir is refreshingly different. He’s not the archetypal nerd, and he doesn’t retreat to draw due to feelings of loneliness or isolation. Gownley seems to be a smart kid and a talented athlete, and he has a loyal group of friends and a girlfriend. After he falls ill, first with chicken pox and then pneumonia, he falls behind in school and loses his head-of-the-class standing—a condition he is determined to reverse. A long-standing love of comics leads him to write his own, though his first attempt is shot down by his best friend, who suggests he should instead write a comic about their group. He does, and it’s an instant sensation. Gownley’s story is wonderful; his small-town life is so vividly evinced, it’s difficult to not get lost in it. While readers will certainly pick up on the nostalgia, it should be refreshing—if not completely alien—for younger readers to see teens interacting without texting, instead using phones with cords. Eagle-eyed readers will also be able to see the beginnings of his well-loved books about Amelia. He includes an author’s note that shouldn’t be overlooked—just be sure to keep the tissues handy.
Humble, endearing and utterly easy to relate to; don’t miss this one. (author’s note) (Graphic memoir. 10 & up)Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-45346-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2013
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