The zeal to extend interest in the “Greatest Generation” to young children brings the 34th US president to picture book readers. Adler’s (Young Cam Jansen and the Double Beach Mystery, p. 560, etc.) straightforward, though largely undistinguished, text opens with Eisenhower’s triumphal 1945 return from Europe, then backtracks to fill in the details of the general’s life from his birth in Denison, Texas, and youth in Abilene, Kansas, to his education at West Point and his early military career. The second world war gets six pages, Eisenhower’s presidency, three. Handsome archival photographs provide the illustrations, and indeed constitute the high point. Quotations from primary source materials appear throughout, giving young readers a direct glimpse into history, but are regrettably unsourced both within the text and in the back matter (which includes a timeline and author’s notes). This offering’s greatest weakness, however, lies in the necessary brevity of coverage of a time and events that may not be familiar to primary grade readers. Terms such as the Allied forces and segregation are introduced without explanation, and the celebratory “Taxes went down and incomes went up” will likely mean little to the designated audience. Still, as an accompaniment to an introduction to the events of WWII and the 1950s, it will be useful. (Picture book/biography. 7-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2002
ISBN: 0-8234-1702-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2002
Trickling, bubbling, swirling, rushing, a river flows down from its mountain beginnings, past peaceful country and bustling city on its way to the sea. Hooper (The Drop in My Drink, 1998, etc.) artfully evokes the water’s changing character as it transforms from “milky-cold / rattling-bold” to a wide, slow “sliding past mudflats / looping through marshes” to the end of its journey. Willey, best known for illustrating Geraldine McCaughrean’s spectacular folk-tale collections, contributes finely detailed scenes crafted in shimmering, intricate blues and greens, capturing mountain’s chill, the bucolic serenity of passing pastures, and a sense of mystery in the water’s shadowy depths. Though Hooper refers to “the cans and cartons / and bits of old wood” being swept along, there’s no direct conservation agenda here (for that, see Debby Atwell’s River, 1999), just appreciation for the river’s beauty and being. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0792-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2000
Nolen and Nelson offer a smaller, but no less gifted counterpart to Big Jabe (2000) in this new tall tale. Shortly after being born one stormy night, Rose thanks her parents, picks a name, and gathers lightning into a ball—all of which is only a harbinger of feats to come. Decked out in full cowboy gear and oozing self-confidence from every pore, Rose cuts a diminutive, but heroic figure in Nelson’s big, broad Western scenes. Though she carries a twisted iron rod as dark as her skin and ropes clouds with fencing wire, Rose overcomes her greatest challenge—a pair of rampaging twisters—not with strength, but with a lullaby her parents sang. After turning tornadoes into much-needed rain clouds, Rose rides away, “that mighty, mighty song pressing on the bull’s-eye that was set at the center of her heart.” Throughout, she shows a reflective bent that gives her more dimension than most tall-tale heroes: a doff of the Stetson to her and her creators. (author’s note) (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-15-216472-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Silver Whistle/Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2003
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