With delightful illustrations, this is a calming way to inspire timid children to realize exciting dreams.
As a child, the world seems very dangerous for young Jill. How does her imagination lead her to become an underwater explorer?
In the spirit of girl power, this title reflects on the rare life of a female cave diver and underwater photographer. Aquanaut and author Heinerth looks back at the childhood memories that shaped her career. The pages alternate between depictions of the round little girl and the adult diver in parallel situations. The young White girl, with brown bangs held back by a red bandana, gives a hand to someone who fell off a bike. The accompanying first-person narration states that little Jill “wanted to help others.” A turn of the page shows the grown-up diver releasing a trapped turtle from entanglement in a net. With double-page spreads brimming with color and cheer, the illustrations tie the motivations of a timid child to the underwater fulfillment of the adult. Moving back and forth in time, the narrative describes how the little girl strove to conquer her fears. Her success as an adult proves that she did. While the illustrations entertain, however, the text examples are a little ho-hum, ceding to the illustrations the task of conveying the magic of cave diving. Luckily, the author’s note helps to mitigate that, and accompanying photographs pack some punch. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10.25-by-19-inch double-page spreads viewed at 13.5% of actual size.)
With delightful illustrations, this is a calming way to inspire timid children to realize exciting dreams. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7352-6363-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
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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