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BENEATH THE STREETS OF BOSTON

Name: BENEATH THE STREETS OF BOSTON
Author: Joe McKendry
ISBN: 1-56792-284-8

BUILDING AMERICA’S FIRST SUBWAY

by Joe McKendry ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 2005

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A stunning examination of the development of Boston’s subway system—the first in the country—takes readers from 1895 to 1916 and explores the four distinct technological challenges met by the planners of the system as it spread from the city center to the suburbs, and under the harbor. Newspaper and magazine illustrator McKendry uses a variety of means to place readers in the time and to depict the progress of Boston’s first big dig. Maps, details, cross sections and diagrams all combine to illustrate the different challenges met; endpapers decorated with period signs and, most spectacularly, sepia-wash paintings so realistic as to make readers look for photo credits ground the narrative visually. Rather more problematically, faux newspaper pages present complementary articles, flanked by other news of the day, to further contextualize the narrative. That these recreations look real enough to fool readers is no small testament to their craft; however, they are not facsimiles but fabrications for the most part, and without any backmatter whatsoever to parse source from artistic license, they betray readers who seek—and deserve—unambiguously non-fictional accounts. (Nonfiction. 10-14)

Pub Date: June 15, 2005

ISBN: 1-56792-284-8

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Godine

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2005

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HISTORICAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
ONE TIMES SQUARE
by Joe McKendry & illustrated by Joe McKendry

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REFUGEE

by Alan Gratz ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 25, 2017

Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense.

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Our Verdict

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Kirkus Reviews'
Best Books Of 2017

New York Times Bestseller

Sydney Taylor Book Award Winner

In the midst of political turmoil, how do you escape the only country that you’ve ever known and navigate a new life? Parallel stories of three different middle school–aged refugees—Josef from Nazi Germany in 1938, Isabel from 1994 Cuba, and Mahmoud from 2015 Aleppo—eventually intertwine for maximum impact.

Three countries, three time periods, three brave protagonists. Yet these three refugee odysseys have so much in common. Each traverses a landscape ruled by a dictator and must balance freedom, family, and responsibility. Each initially leaves by boat, struggles between visibility and invisibility, copes with repeated obstacles and heart-wrenching loss, and gains resilience in the process. Each third-person narrative offers an accessible look at migration under duress, in which the behavior of familiar adults changes unpredictably, strangers exploit the vulnerabilities of transients, and circumstances seem driven by random luck. Mahmoud eventually concludes that visibility is best: “See us….Hear us. Help us.” With this book, Gratz accomplishes a feat that is nothing short of brilliant, offering a skillfully wrought narrative laced with global and intergenerational reverberations that signal hope for the future. Excellent for older middle grade and above in classrooms, book groups, and/or communities looking to increase empathy for new and existing arrivals from afar.

Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense. (maps, author’s note) (Historical fiction. 10-14)