Before the Civil War, John Parker, an ex-slave, successful businessman, and resident of the free state of Ohio crossed the Ohio River into Kentucky (a slave state) and risked his own life to free those still in bondage. Rappaport (Dirt on Their Skirts, p. 64, etc.) recounts one incident in the life of a brave conductor on the Underground Railroad in tones that echo a family tale being passed down. “Wait, wait. Listen. Listen. Only crickets and bullfrogs breaking the silence of the fall of night.” Parker crosses the Ohio River under the cloak of darkness to rescue a captive family. He’s almost caught but narrowly escapes. His breathlessness and fear are conveyed by the rhythm of the telling. “Run, Run. Back to the river. Back to his skiff. Row, row. Away . . .” Parker patiently waits through winter then returns to the plantation. The family he has come to rescue refuses his help. Since Parker’s last visit, the master of the plantation has taken Sarah’s baby away every night to ensure that the family won’t try to escape. The incomparable illustrations by Collier (Uptown, p. 793) are a unique blend of torn and cut paper, photographs, and watercolor that have an almost mosaic quality. An off-kilter placement and a nighttime palette of purples, blues, and black emphasize the precariousness of Parker’s situation. Guardian ancestors appear on several facing pages to watch over Parker’s trials and give a physical manifestation to the readers’ hopes and prayers. An illustrated book for older children such as the audience of Polacco’s Pink and Say (1994), this volume is a model of excellence in picture-book making from the sepia-toned river map reproduction adorning the endpapers to the notable page layout. (author’s note, bibliography, reading list) (Picture book. 7-10)
Pub Date: July 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7868-0350-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Disney-Jump at the Sun
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2000
Strong rhythms and occasional full or partial rhymes give this account of P.T. Barnum’s 1884 elephant parade across the newly opened Brooklyn Bridge an incantatory tone. Catching a whiff of public concern about the new bridge’s sturdiness, Barnum seizes the moment: “’I will stage an event / that will calm every fear, erase every worry, / about that remarkable bridge. / My display will amuse, inform / and astound some. / Or else my name isn’t Barnum!’” Using a rich palette of glowing golds and browns, Roca imbues the pachyderms with a calm solidity, sending them ambling past equally solid-looking buildings and over a truly monumental bridge—which soars over a striped Big Top tent in the final scene. A stately rendition of the episode, less exuberant, but also less fictionalized, than Phil Bildner’s Twenty-One Elephants (2004), illustrated by LeUyen Pham. (author’s note, resource list) (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2005
ISBN: 0-618-44887-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2005
The author of Cod’s Tale (2001) again demonstrates a dab hand at recasting his adult work for a younger audience. Here the topic is salt, “the only rock eaten by human beings,” and, as he engrossingly demonstrates, “the object of wars and revolutions” throughout recorded history and before. Between his opening disquisition on its chemical composition and a closing timeline, he explores salt’s sources and methods of extraction, its worldwide economic influences from prehistoric domestication of animals to Gandhi’s Salt March, its many uses as a preservative and industrial product, its culinary and even, as the source for words like “salary” and “salad,” its linguistic history. Along with lucid maps and diagrams, Schindler supplies detailed, sometimes fanciful scenes to go along, finishing with a view of young folk chowing down on orders of French fries as ghostly figures from history look on. Some of Kurlansky’s claims are exaggerated (the Erie and other canals were built to transport more than just salt, for instance), and there are no leads to further resources, but this salutary (in more ways than one) micro-history will have young readers lifting their shakers in tribute. (Picture book/nonfiction. 8-10)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-399-23998-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2006
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