An accessible gateway to mid-20th-century Eastern European history.
When his Romanian town becomes part of Soviet Ukraine in 1940, how long can Natt’s naiveté last?
Eleven-year-old, asthmatic, Jewish Natt is happy in Zastavna, where he speaks five languages. There’s German at home, Ukrainian to speak to his Ukrainian neighbors, Hebrew from his secular, Zionist Hebrew school, Yiddish to talk to some of his Jewish neighbors, and, of course, Romanian at school. When Soviets take over Zastavna, Natt’s excited to learn Russian, too. He’s pleased about many changes the Soviets bring: The meanest teacher is gone, the new teacher is nice (if oddly nervous), and Natt will soon be a Pioneer with a red kerchief. But not all the changes are good. The Russians take over Natt’s house, and there’s never food anymore. Though Natt’s torn between the cynicism of his best friend and his mother’s attempts to paint a rosier picture, he sees the grim truth when his father is sent to a Siberian gulag. Soon Natt, too, is arrested, and this once-proud Pioneer is deemed “an Enemy of the People” and deported to Siberia with his mother. Basing her story on the experience of a beloved teacher, Ravel has Natt tell his own story in an ingenuous present tense that never loses its youthful quality even as it gains wisdom. Though a historical note focuses on Hitler, Natt never encounters the horrors of Nazis.
An accessible gateway to mid-20th-century Eastern European history. (author’s note) (Historical fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-77306-174-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
It’s not the first time old Ben has paid our times a call, but it’s funny and free-spirited, with an informational load that...
Antics both instructive and embarrassing ensue after a mysterious package left on their doorstep brings a Founding Father into the lives of two modern children.
Summoned somehow by what looks for all the world like an old-time crystal radio set, Ben Franklin turns out to be an amiable sort. He is immediately taken in hand by 7-year-old Olive for a tour of modern wonders—early versions of which many, from electrical appliances in the kitchen to the Illinois town’s public library and fire department, he justly lays claim to inventing. Meanwhile big brother Nolan, 10, tags along, frantic to return him to his own era before either their divorced mom or snoopy classmate Tommy Tuttle sees him. Fleming, author of Ben Franklin’s Almanac (2003) (and also, not uncoincidentally considering the final scene of this outing, Our Eleanor, 2005), mixes history with humor as the great man dispenses aphorisms and reminiscences through diverse misadventures, all of which end well, before vanishing at last. Following a closing, sequel-cueing kicker (see above) she then separates facts from fancies in closing notes, with print and online leads to more of the former. To go with spot illustrations of the evidently all-white cast throughout the narrative, Fearing incorporates change-of-pace sets of sequential panels for Franklin’s biographical and scientific anecdotes. Final illustrations not seen.
It’s not the first time old Ben has paid our times a call, but it’s funny and free-spirited, with an informational load that adds flavor without weight. (Graphic/fantasy hybrid. 9-11)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-101-93406-7
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
Suggesting that some things haven’t changed since the Stone Age, Briggs (A Bit More Bert, p. 1300, etc.) introduces a moon-faced lad who infuriates his clueless parents by insistently questioning things-as-they-are. To the despair and fury of his dad, Dug, and mom, Dugs, Ug is forever complaining about his stone trousers, wanting something nicer for breakfast than “cold bits of dead animal,” wondering whether the stream couldn’t be “bent” a bit closer to the family cave. He’s not all talk, either, though most of his bright ideas come to naught; his stone boat sinks, his wheel rolls down the hill but has no other apparent use, and though his father indulgently cuts trousers for him from animal hide, they aren’t wearable, as sewing hasn’t been invented. Briggs tells the tale in cartoon panels with dialogue balloons, footnoting his own anachronisms: “No one living in the Stone Age would know he was living in the Stone Age. He would believe he was living in the modern age. Today we believe we are living in the modern age. Time will tell.” Ultimately, Ug fulfills his mother’s dark prediction that he would end up painting on walls, and is last seen beneath his art, still pining for something better. Beneath the satiric barbs there’s a touch of poignancy to this tale of a da Vinci just a few dozen millennia ahead of his time. (Picture book. 8-11)
Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2002
ISBN: 0-375-91611-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2002
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