These portraits, while mightily jaundiced by the author’s selectivity and perspective, do offer readers a warts-and-all look...
Borrowing the “dream team” trope from superhero comics, O’Brien invites readers to evaluate each of 39 dead presidents (George Washington through Ronald Reagan, excepting Jimmy Carter) on his merits.
Claiming that “every good team needs Brains, Brawn, a Loose Cannon, a Moral Compass, and a Roosevelt,” the author first presents his own picks. (His Roosevelt is TR.) Each chapter begins with a crowning epithet, important dates, family information, and a “Fun Fact.” Franklin Pierce “Is Handsome but Ultimately Useless”; FDR is “Rolling Thunder.” Black-and-white illustrations riff on the superhero and comics motifs. O’Brien’s essays are a rambling mix of fact, opinion, and jokey bluster. Andrew Jackson’s exploits as a soldier and compulsive duelist crowd out much mention of his actual presidency. Woodrow Wilson, “The Half-Dead President,” is cast as highly accomplished but wracked with physical ailments. Post–World War I, as he stumped relentlessly, promoting his unpopular League of Nations idea, “his body started falling apart in a really bizarre way.…morphing so that his appearance began to match his inner anger/craziness.” O’Brien unequivocally condemns Wilson’s racism, claiming of presidents who owned slaves, “Most of those guys were less racist than Wilson.”
These portraits, while mightily jaundiced by the author’s selectivity and perspective, do offer readers a warts-and-all look at two centuries of presidential leadership and politics. (further reading, websites, bibliography, source notes) (Collective biography. 10-13)Pub Date: July 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-553-53747-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2016
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
In no particular order and using no set criteria for his selections, veteran sportscaster Berman pays tribute to an arbitrary gallery of baseball stars—all familiar names and, except for the Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez, retired from play for decades. Repeatedly taking the stance that statistics are just numbers but then reeling off batting averages, home-run totals, wins (for pitchers) and other data as evidence of greatness, he offers career highlights in a folksy narrative surrounded by photos, side comments and baseball-card–style notes in side boxes. Readers had best come to this with some prior knowledge, since he casually drops terms like “slugging percentage,” “dead ball era” and “barnstorming” without explanation and also presents a notably superficial picture of baseball’s history—placing the sport’s “first half-century” almost entirely in the 1900s, for instance, and condescendingly noting that Jackie Robinson’s skill led Branch Rickey to decide that he “was worthy of becoming the first black player to play in the majors.” The awesome feats of Ruth, Mantle, the Gibsons Bob and Josh, Hank Aaron, Ty Cobb and the rest are always worth a recap—but this one’s strictly minor league. (Nonfiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4022-3886-4
Page Count: 138
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2010
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