A stirring testament to the power of books to unite us all for good.
Stories must be preserved at all costs.
In April 1966, a raging fire broke out at the Jewish Theological Seminary on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, threatening to destroy its historic, multilingual, and multidisciplinary library. In what became known as Operation Booklift, religious leaders of various faiths worked tirelessly alongside the diverse community to salvage, clean, repair, and restore the collections. Seventy thousand items were ultimately lost, though miraculously 170,000 books and other materials were rescued. A food scientist proposed freeze-drying the soaked items, drenched from firefighters’ onslaught of water. Then a library volunteer came up with a more doable solution: inserting paper towels between wet pages. The call went out, and volunteers raised the necessary funds to purchase toweling. The urgency of the community is matched by the book’s compelling text. Pritchard’s forceful writing is marked by inspired turns of phrase. A recurring refrain set in blue type—“Keep our stories alive”—is breathlessly addressed to the walls of the library, to the firefighters’ blankets, to the sprays of rushing water, and to the pages themselves. The marvelous illustrations, created with acrylic paints, colored pencil, and collage, are abuzz with spirited, robust movement; Alko’s use of found objects, including what appear to be book excerpts, lends the narrative immediacy.
A stirring testament to the power of books to unite us all for good. (about the Jewish Theological Seminary Library fire of 1966, photos, author’s note, key sources) (Informational picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781665914970
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fragmentary memoir, but warm, humorous and engaging overall.
Anecdotal paintings and reminiscences of two childhood years spent in China, by an artist now in her 90s.
Following up Once Upon a Full Moon (2007), an account of her family’s journey from Canada to Kwangtung province, Quan recalls 17 experiences or incidents during the stay. These include feasting on New Year’s Day (“Mama steamed a whole chicken inside a winter melon and made sweet red and green bean paste…”), gathering to watch a teen relative take a bucket shower (“We all laughed with glee”), and welcoming both a new piglet and, later, a new baby brother. Opposite each memory, a full-page, loosely brushed watercolor in a naïve style adds both cultural and comical notes with depictions of small, active or intent figures in village dress and settings. It’s a sunny picture, but there are references to the real dangers of pirates and brigands, as well as a comment about the author’s beloved Popo (grandmother) walking to church on bound feet. These, along with a final parting made particularly poignant since the baby, being foreign-born, had to be left in China for several years, keep it from becoming a sugary nostalgiafest.
A fragmentary memoir, but warm, humorous and engaging overall. (afterword, with photo of Popo) (Illustrated memoir. 6-9)Pub Date: March 12, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-77049-383-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2013
Sad indeed, but a little bland—though less traumatic in the telling than the stories of Jumbo or the Faithful Elephants...
In this true tale of an elephant that crushed a keeper after peacefully giving zoo visitors rides for nearly 40 years, Fenton tones the drama down to near nonexistence (for better or worse).
Arriving at the Melbourne Zoo as a youngster, Queenie began giving rides in 1905. She became such a fixture that children wrote her letters, her birthday was celebrated each year, and she even marched in the Centenary Floral Parade in 1934. After creating an endearing but not anthropomorphic portrait of her pachyderm protagonist, the author, warning that “Queenie’s story has a sad ending,” goes on to explain that even though the 1944 killing might have been just an accident, “the gentle Indian elephant was put to sleep.” Furthermore, she was never replaced; the elephants in today’s zoo occupy a habitat where they can “do just what elephants like to do.” Neither the incident itself nor Queenie’s end are specifically described or depicted, and Gouldthorpe’s illustrations, which look like old, hand-tinted photographs, put a nostalgic distance between viewers and events.
Sad indeed, but a little bland—though less traumatic in the telling than the stories of Jumbo or the Faithful Elephants (1988) killed at the Tokyo Zoo. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: June 11, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6375-9
Page Count: 25
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: April 30, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2013
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