Woolly mammoths, giant sloths, a race of tiny cannibals, erupting volcanoes, a salt mountain—did these things really exist in the unexplored northwest? Lewis and Clark would find out on their famous journey from 1803–06. President Jefferson had just doubled the size of the US with the Louisiana Purchase—800,000 acres at three cents an acre. Now Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were assigned to find and map a Northwest Passage to the Pacific Ocean. They were to make friends with the Indians, encourage peace among the various tribes, keep journals about the plants, animals, and landscape, collect samples of plants and animals, and establish an American presence that would further American trade. With strokes of luck along the way—the help of young Sacagawea, the decision of the Nez Perce to help them rather than kill them—the party did make it to the Pacific, though they did not find a Northwest Passage. They found hundreds of new plant and animal species, made contact with several Indian tribes, and established an American presence in the area to counter the British presence. Thanks to the journals, we can see through the eyes of Lewis and Clark and behold the wonders of a courageous odyssey through a pristine wilderness. Kimmel’s (In the Eye of the Storm, not reviewed, etc.) work is a well written, lively account for young readers. Each chapter opens with an excerpt from the journals, and maps, illustrations, and excerpts from the journals are sprinkled throughout. The return trip is given cursory treatment, but this is a fine introduction for young readers and a solid addition to the growing number of new books about Lewis and Clark, such as Laurie Myers’s Lewis and Clark and Me (p. 886) and Laurence Pringle’s Dog of Discovery (not reviewed). (index and bibliography, not seen) (Nonfiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2003
ISBN: 0-375-81348-9
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Not for the faint-hearted—who are mostly adults anyway—but for stouthearted kids who love a brush with the sinister:...
A magnificently creepy fantasy pits a bright, bored little girl against a soul-eating horror that inhabits the reality right next door.
Coraline’s parents are loving, but really too busy to play with her, so she amuses herself by exploring her family’s new flat. A drawing-room door that opens onto a brick wall becomes a natural magnet for the curious little girl, and she is only half-surprised when, one day, the door opens onto a hallway and Coraline finds herself in a skewed mirror of her own flat, complete with skewed, button-eyed versions of her own parents. This is Gaiman’s (American Gods, 2001, etc.) first novel for children, and the author of the Sandman graphic novels here shows a sure sense of a child’s fears—and the child’s ability to overcome those fears. “I will be brave,” thinks Coraline. “No, I am brave.” When Coraline realizes that her other mother has not only stolen her real parents but has also stolen the souls of other children before her, she resolves to free her parents and to find the lost souls by matching her wits against the not-mother. The narrative hews closely to a child’s-eye perspective: Coraline never really tries to understand what has happened or to fathom the nature of the other mother; she simply focuses on getting her parents back and thwarting the other mother for good. Her ability to accept and cope with the surreality of the other flat springs from the child’s ability to accept, without question, the eccentricity and arbitrariness of her own—and every child’s own—reality. As Coraline’s quest picks up its pace, the parallel world she finds herself trapped in grows ever more monstrous, generating some deliciously eerie descriptive writing.
Not for the faint-hearted—who are mostly adults anyway—but for stouthearted kids who love a brush with the sinister: Coraline is spot on. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-380-97778-8
Page Count: 176
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2002
SEEN & HEARD
Simple, bella, un regalo permenente: simple and beautiful, a gift that will stay.
Renowned Latin American writer Alvarez has created another story about cultural identity, but this time the primary character is 11-year-old Miguel Guzmán.
When Tía Lola arrives to help the family, Miguel and his hermana, Juanita, have just moved from New York City to Vermont with their recently divorced mother. The last thing Miguel wants, as he's trying to fit into a predominantly white community, is a flamboyant aunt who doesn't speak a word of English. Tía Lola, however, knows a language that defies words; she quickly charms and befriends all the neighbors. She can also cook exotic food, dance (anywhere, anytime), plan fun parties, and tell enchanting stories. Eventually, Tía Lola and the children swap English and Spanish ejercicios, but the true lesson is "mutual understanding." Peppered with Spanish words and phrases, Alvarez makes the reader as much a part of the "language" lessons as the characters. This story seamlessly weaves two culturaswhile letting each remain intact, just as Miguel is learning to do with his own life. Like all good stories, this one incorporates a lesson just subtle enough that readers will forget they're being taught, but in the end will understand themselves, and others, a little better, regardless of la lengua nativa—the mother tongue.
Simple, bella, un regalo permenente: simple and beautiful, a gift that will stay. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-375-80215-0
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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