An entertaining children’s history that pays rich and systematic attention to the meaning of liberty.
Kids explore the rise of political and economic freedom in America in Boyack’s illustrated primer.
In this latest installment of the Tuttle Twins series, Ethan and Emily Tuttle, who look to be about 11 years old, get lessons in American history, mostly from Fred, a neighbor who engages them in seminars augmented with costumes and skits (he dons a Pilgrim outfit to discuss the Mayflower Compact, for example). The dialogues elaborate on broad historiographical themes, including the irrepressible search for trade routes to Asia that brought Europeans to the Americas; the growth of the English tradition of individual rights; the colonists’ development of institutions of self-government an ocean away from the king; their chafing against arbitrary royal power, taxation and economic regulation in the 1760s and 1770s; and the turn from protest to revolution (Fred simulates the Redcoats’ ordeal at Lexington and Concord by having the twins run a backyard obstacle course while he pelts them with chestnuts). In the book’s climax, demonstrators at an Independence Day celebration hand out leaflets spotlighting slavery, the Trail of Tears, and “American fascism”; Fred, portraying Thomas Jefferson, replies with a speech that acknowledges these darker aspects of American history—including Jefferson’s ownership of slaves—but argues that America’s founding principles eventually brought the world freedom and prosperity. The author, founder of the Libertas Institute think tank, infuses libertarian ideas into the narrative: war is bad; free trade is good; coercive government is the main threat to freedom and happiness. With so much to cover in a slender text, some topics receive a sketchy, garbled treatment (“With feudalism, the peasants had to be slaves for the king, or else!”). Still, Boyack manages to give this history a coherent and pointed philosophical framework, conveyed in lively, kid-friendly prose: “Locke wrote about an idea that was pretty new and radical at the time—that the government’s job was to protect everyone’s right to life, liberty, and property.” Illustrations by Stanfield and Cariello contribute colorful visual pizzazz.
An entertaining children’s history that pays rich and systematic attention to the meaning of liberty.Pub Date: July 5, 2022
ISBN: 9781943521944
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Libertas Press
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A good-enough introduction to a contested festivity but one that’s not in step with the community it’s for.
An overview of the modern African-American holiday.
This book arrives at a time when black people in the United States have had intraracial—some serious, some snarky—conversations about Kwanzaa’s relevance nowadays, from its patchwork inspiration that flattens the cultural diversity of the African continent to a single festive story to, relatedly, the earnest blacker-than-thou pretentiousness surrounding it. Both the author and consultant Keith A. Mayes take great pains—and in painfully simplistic language—to provide a context that attempts to refute the internal arguments as much as it informs its intended audience. In fact, Mayes says in the endnotes that young people are Kwanzaa’s “largest audience and most important constituents” and further extends an invitation to all races and ages to join the winter celebration. However, his “young people represent the future” counterpoint—and the book itself—really responds to an echo of an argument, as black communities have moved the conversation out to listen to African communities who critique the holiday’s loose “African-ness” and deep American-ness and moved on to commemorate holidays that have a more historical base in black people’s experiences in the United States, such as Juneteenth. In this context, the explications of Kwanzaa’s principles and symbols and the smattering of accompanying activities feel out of touch.
A good-enough introduction to a contested festivity but one that’s not in step with the community it’s for. (resources, bibliography, glossary, afterword) (Nonfiction. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4263-2849-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: National Geographic Kids
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2017
A picture book more than worthy of sharing the shelf with Alan Schroeder and Jerry Pinkney’s Minty (1996) and Carole Boston...
A memorable, lyrical reverse-chronological walk through the life of an American icon.
In free verse, Cline-Ransome narrates the life of Harriet Tubman, starting and ending with a train ride Tubman takes as an old woman. “But before wrinkles formed / and her eyes failed,” Tubman could walk tirelessly under a starlit sky. Cline-Ransome then describes the array of roles Tubman played throughout her life, including suffragist, abolitionist, Union spy, and conductor on the Underground Railroad. By framing the story around a literal train ride, the Ransomes juxtapose the privilege of traveling by rail against Harriet’s earlier modes of travel, when she repeatedly ran for her life. Racism still abounds, however, for she rides in a segregated train. While the text introduces readers to the details of Tubman’s life, Ransome’s use of watercolor—such a striking departure from his oil illustrations in many of his other picture books—reveals Tubman’s humanity, determination, drive, and hope. Ransome’s lavishly detailed and expansive double-page spreads situate young readers in each time and place as the text takes them further into the past.
A picture book more than worthy of sharing the shelf with Alan Schroeder and Jerry Pinkney’s Minty (1996) and Carole Boston Weatherford and Kadir Nelson’s Moses (2006). (Picture book/biography. 5-8)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2047-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
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