Wiles draws on memories of her childhood summers in Mississippi in her first picture book, a slice-of-life story about Joe, a Caucasian boy, and his best friend, John Henry, an African-American boy whose mother works as a housekeeper for Joe’s family. The setting is the Deep South in the summer of 1964, the period called Freedom Summer for its wide-ranging social changes following passage of the Civil Rights Act. Joe and John Henry have spent all their summers together, working around the rampant prejudice of the era and maintaining their friendship even though they can’t swim in the public pool together or walk into the local store to buy a pair of ice pops. When the new law takes effect, the boys race together to the public pool only to find it being filled in with asphalt by city workers. John Henry’s hurt and shame ring true in the text, but Joe’s precocious understanding of the situation outstrips his age. (“I want to see this town with John Henry’s eyes.”) An author’s note at the beginning of the book describes her experiences and the atmosphere in her own hometown during this era, when some white business owners preferred to close down rather than open their doors to African-Americans. Younger children will need this background explanation to understand the story’s underlying layers of meaning, or the filling-in of the swimming pool will seem like a mindless bureaucratic blunder rather than concrete prejudice in action. Teachers and parents could use this book as a quiet but powerful introduction to the prejudice experienced by many Americans, and of course the book is a natural to pair with the story of another, more-famous John Henry. Vibrant full-page paintings by talented French-born artist Lagarrigue capture both the palpable heat of southern summer days and the warmth of the boys’ friendship. (Picture book. 6-12)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83016-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2001
PERSPECTIVES
The Geiserts (Mountain Town, 2000, etc.) observe a fourth American small town through a year's changes. Lying along litter-strewn railroad tracks beneath barren-looking hills, the hamlet seems deserted under the glaring sun, but once that sun goes down, the residents, who have been hanging out in the air-conditioned store and elsewhere, congregate beneath the stars for gabfests, Saturday night dances, and, in season, a Christmas play. Sometimes a dust storm whirls by, or, more rarely, rain or snow; buildings are damaged, repaired, or added to as a baby arrives, a kiss leads to a proposal, and so on. The text is still a series of generalities, but less wooden than in previous volumes: "When the sun rises, the family laundry is already hanging on the line. By the time breakfast is over, the laundry will be dry." A key to less visible events at the end will prompt insufficiently attentive readers to go back over the delicately drawn and colored aerial views, cross sections and inside peeks. City and suburban children especially will benefit from the reminder that there is more to this country than malls and high-rises. (Picture book/nonfiction. 6-10)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-395-95387-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2001
This preachy, pedestrian cautionary tale isn’t going to convince many children to change their ways. Simia, a young monkey, wants everything. But the flower she grabs on a tree branch turns out to be attached to a thorny cactus, a beautiful orange object is a snarling jaguar, a zigzag shape is a snake that “uncoiled itself and shot into the air” (say what?), a “coconut” turns out to be a wasp’s nest, and so on. Later, Simia picks a flower that wilts, snatches a pretty stone from playmates and throws it into the lake, then almost falls out of a tree reaching for the moon. Mother monkey hammers the lesson home: “ ‘Some things are for yourself, some things are for others, and some things . . . are for everyone to share. You don’t have to own things to enjoy them.’ ” Instantly, Simia is satisfied. Right. Walters (Are You There, Baby Bear?, 1999) sets her little monkey into a series of lush, if static, forest scenes. An also-ran next to such similarly themed books as Marcia Brown’s How, Hippo (1969) and Kate Banks’s Baboon (1997). (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2001
ISBN: 1-56656-376-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Crocodile/Interlink
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2000
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