This tale bears the same timely message as its subject’s music: Let’s all unite in a spirit of community.
A musician inspired by her Jewish faith stirred people who appreciated her music.
Singer/composer/guitarist Debbie Friedman (1951-2011) was always passionate about music. Eventually, despite not knowing how to read music, she taught herself to play the guitar. A stint at an Israeli kibbutz convinced Debbie that Jewish music united people in joyful community, and she became determined to create music everyone could sing. She started composing songs, writing English lyrics translated from Hebrew prayers. While some people loved her songs, others were derisive, preferring “traditional Jewish music, just as we’ve always had!” and pointing out Debbie’s lack of formal musical training. Debbie remained undeterred, however, and continued to delight her large audiences, who, as she had dreamed, came together through her celebratory music. This admiring picture book will be welcomed in public libraries and, especially, in Jewish school and synagogue-library collections. It brings to vivid life a singer/composer whose influence is still widely felt and whose songs are acclaimed throughout the Jewish musical world but who deserves to be even more widely known. The colorful illustrations are lively and expressive; the communal ideal Debbie yearned for is depicted through numerous group portrayals. Appropriately, musical notes float across many pages. Some Hebrew words appear with definitions but without pronunciation guidance. Debbie presents White; some background characters appear to be people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
This tale bears the same timely message as its subject’s music: Let’s all unite in a spirit of community. (about Debbie Friedman, glossary, author’s note) (Informational picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781728443010
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kar-Ben
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses.
An NBA star pays tribute to the influence of his grandfather.
In the same vein as his Long Shot (2009), illustrated by Frank Morrison, this latest from Paul prioritizes values and character: “My granddad Papa Chilly had dreams that came true,” he writes, “so maybe if I listen and watch him, / mine will too.” So it is that the wide-eyed Black child in the simply drawn illustrations rises early to get to the playground hoops before anyone else, watches his elder working hard and respecting others, hears him cheering along with the rest of the family from the stands during games, and recalls in a prose afterword that his grandfather wasn’t one to lecture but taught by example. Paul mentions in both the text and the backmatter that Papa Chilly was the first African American to own a service station in North Carolina (his presumed dream) but not that he was killed in a robbery, which has the effect of keeping the overall tone positive and the instructional content one-dimensional. Figures in the pictures are mostly dark-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-81003-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
A picture book more than worthy of sharing the shelf with Alan Schroeder and Jerry Pinkney’s Minty (1996) and Carole Boston...
A memorable, lyrical reverse-chronological walk through the life of an American icon.
In free verse, Cline-Ransome narrates the life of Harriet Tubman, starting and ending with a train ride Tubman takes as an old woman. “But before wrinkles formed / and her eyes failed,” Tubman could walk tirelessly under a starlit sky. Cline-Ransome then describes the array of roles Tubman played throughout her life, including suffragist, abolitionist, Union spy, and conductor on the Underground Railroad. By framing the story around a literal train ride, the Ransomes juxtapose the privilege of traveling by rail against Harriet’s earlier modes of travel, when she repeatedly ran for her life. Racism still abounds, however, for she rides in a segregated train. While the text introduces readers to the details of Tubman’s life, Ransome’s use of watercolor—such a striking departure from his oil illustrations in many of his other picture books—reveals Tubman’s humanity, determination, drive, and hope. Ransome’s lavishly detailed and expansive double-page spreads situate young readers in each time and place as the text takes them further into the past.
A picture book more than worthy of sharing the shelf with Alan Schroeder and Jerry Pinkney’s Minty (1996) and Carole Boston Weatherford and Kadir Nelson’s Moses (2006). (Picture book/biography. 5-8)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2047-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
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