The life of one of literature’s greatest one-hit wonders is presented for young readers in an adapted version of the author’s Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee (2006). Starting with Lee’s childhood, he chronicles her Southern upbringing in a family that, while not open to discussions about emotional issues, always supported intellectual pursuits. Encouraged by her father and sister, both attorneys, Lee attended college and later moved to New York to pursue a writing career. The text does an excellent job of conveying the facets of Lee’s personality that made her a writing success, including her honesty, tenacity, sense of justice and adaptability of interpersonal style. In addition to detailing her writing of To Kill a Mockingbird, Shields demonstrates Lee’s critical role in the creation of longtime friend Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. Prior knowledge of both works is not absolutely necessary, thanks to an absorbing and easy narrative style; still, readers may not pick this up unless they already have an interest in Lee’s life. (black-and-white photos, notes, bibliography, index) (Biography. YA)
Pub Date: April 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8050-8334-7
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Small but mighty necessary reading.
A miniature manifesto for radical queer acceptance that weaves together the personal and political.
Eli, a cis gay white Jewish man, uses his own identities and experiences to frame and acknowledge his perspective. In the prologue, Eli compares the global Jewish community to the global queer community, noting, “We don’t always get it right, but the importance of showing up for other Jews has been carved into the DNA of what it means to be Jewish. It is my dream that queer people develop the same ideology—what I like to call a Global Queer Conscience.” He details his own isolating experiences as a queer adolescent in an Orthodox Jewish community and reflects on how he and so many others would have benefitted from a robust and supportive queer community. The rest of the book outlines 10 principles based on the belief that an expectation of mutual care and concern across various other dimensions of identity can be integrated into queer community values. Eli’s prose is clear, straightforward, and powerful. While he makes some choices that may be divisive—for example, using the initialism LGBTQIAA+ which includes “ally”—he always makes clear those are his personal choices and that the language is ever evolving.
Small but mighty necessary reading. (resources) (Nonfiction. 14-18)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09368-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
Evocative, elegant prose tells the true, first-person story of Samantha’s difficult childhood navigating a learning disability. Sam has dyscalculia, which severely hinders her ability to understand sequential processing. Academic skills affected include math, spelling, and grammar; other inabilities are telling time, understanding how hours pass, counting money, and dialing the phone. As a child, Sam disguises both her inability to function like other children as well as her shame and fear about it. The eventual diagnosis of “learning disabled” is a godsend, but still leaves many challenges. At age 15, Sam publishes a group-project book of her own original poems (Reach for the Moon), and although high school and college are massive challenges, she finishes both. Crippling social anxiety turns out to be caused not just by the learning disability, but also by depression. Medication brings some long-needed relief. Educational and beautifully written, perfectly demonstrating how learning disabilities can coexist with real talent. (Memoir. YA)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-439-33904-9
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2003
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