Fans of all things supernatural will be horrified—and highly entertained.
Everything you ever wanted to know about vampires—in history, literature, movies, and folk traditions.
A self-proclaimed horror fan provides a lively introduction to these undead bloodsuckers, making clear that such legends generally have deep roots. She points out that one’s image of a vampire will depend on where they might have encountered such characters. Was it in a book? A film? Classical or modern? She addresses readers directly, writing in a conversational tone as she describes attributes of vampires and offers a “handy cheat sheet” to recognize vampire neighbors (reassuring readers that this is a “totally made-up” situation). Another scenario provides ways to fight hypothetical vampires. There’s a recipe for “bat breath garlic bread,” instructions for composting, and a fill-in-the-blank spooky story to write. Text boxes add scientific and historical information. Chapter by chapter, Fitzpatrick digs down to unearth vampires in European history and myth and similar blood-sucking, shape-shifting characters from around the world. She imagines interviewing Vlad the Impaler (possibly the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula) and Stoker. She explores vampires in books (including YA lit), film, and television and looks at examples of queer representation and vampire stories featuring characters of color. Folklore-lover Bölecz is perfectly matched to this engaging survey. Her dramatic, slightly eerie spot drawings of vampires, bats, coffins, and a diverse array of ordinary humans break up the text and add to the fun.
Fans of all things supernatural will be horrified—and highly entertained. (bibliography) (Nonfiction. 9-14)Pub Date: March 28, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-68369-341-3
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
Deftly written and informative; a call for vigilance and equality.
An examination of the history of Chinese American experiences.
Blackburn opens with a note to readers about growing up feeling invisible as a multicultural, biracial Chinese American. She notes the tremendous diversity of Chinese American history and writes that this book is a starting point for learning more. The evenly paced narrative starts with the earliest recorded arrival of the Chinese in America in 1834. A teenage girl, whose real name is unknown, arrived in New York Harbor with the Carnes brothers, merchants who imported Chinese goods and put her on display “like an animal in a circus.” The author then examines shifting laws, U.S. and global political and economic climates, and changing societal attitudes. The book introduces the highlighted people—including Yee Ah Tye, Wong Kim Ark, Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, and Vincent Chen—in relation to lawsuits or other transformative events; they also stand as examples for explaining concepts such as racial hierarchy and the model minority myth. Maps, photos, and documents are interspersed throughout. Chapters close with questions that encourage readers to think critically about systems of oppression, actively engage with the material, and draw connections to their own lives. Although the book covers a wide span of history, from the Gold Rush to the rise in anti-Asian hate during the Covid-19 pandemic, it thoroughly explains the various events. Blackburn doesn’t shy away from describing terrible setbacks, but she balances them with examples of solidarity and progress.
Deftly written and informative; a call for vigilance and equality. (resources, bibliography, image credits) (Nonfiction. 10-14)Pub Date: March 26, 2024
ISBN: 9780593567630
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
Like oil itself, this is a book that needs to be handled with special care.
In 1977, the oil carrier Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons of oil into a formerly pristine Alaskan ocean inlet, killing millions of birds, animals, and fish. Despite a cleanup, crude oil is still there.
The Winters foretold the destructive powers of the atomic bomb allusively in The Secret Project (2017), leaving the actuality to the backmatter. They make no such accommodations to young audiences in this disturbing book. From the dark front cover, on which oily blobs conceal a seabird, to the rescuer’s sad face on the back, the mother-son team emphasizes the disaster. A relatively easy-to-read and poetically heightened text introduces the situation. Oil is pumped from the Earth “all day long, all night long, / day after day, year after year” in “what had been unspoiled land, home to Native people // and thousands of caribou.” The scale of extraction is huge: There’s “a giant pipeline” leading to “enormous ships.” Then, crash. Rivers of oil gush out over three full-bleed wordless pages. Subsequent scenes show rocks, seabirds, and sea otters covered with oil. Finally, 30 years later, animals have returned to a cheerful scene. “But if you lift a rock… // oil / seeps / up.” For an adult reader, this is heartbreaking. How much more difficult might this be for an animal-loving child?
Like oil itself, this is a book that needs to be handled with special care. (author’s note, further reading) (Informational picture book. 9-12)Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-3077-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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