Douglas’ life and work were important; this attempt to celebrate them falls short.
This picture-book biography of Marjory Stoneman Douglas leans into her passion for Florida’s Everglades.
A Minnesotan by birth, Douglas arrived in Florida in 1915 as a college graduate, joining her estranged journalist father at the Miami Herald. There, she fell in love with the Everglades and used her writing skills to draw attention to their importance and to advocate for their preservation. Seeing this ambition become reality took decades of persistence and incremental success. James’ text, set in small, businesslike type on her backgrounds, leads readers on a jerky path through Douglas’ long life (she died at 108). They meet many of the influential men in her life—her editor, her fellow activists—but not the husband whose surname she adopted. That is but one omission that readers may note in this elliptical text. Most notable is the stark absence of the Miccosukee and the Seminole; while the text waxes lyrical about the flora and fauna, it is silent about the human residents of the Everglades. Information is too frequently conveyed in awkward, expository, and unsourced dialogue; James’ digital artwork often has a distinctly uncanny-valley effect. She places her white subject, usually clad in hat and pearls, amid a variety of swampy settings. Backmatter offers an author’s note, information on water resources, a bibliography, and source notes.
Douglas’ life and work were important; this attempt to celebrate them falls short. (list of relevant organizations) (Picture-book biography. 7-9)Pub Date: April 15, 2025
ISBN: 9780316446914
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
A pivotal moment in a child’s life, at once stirring and authentically personal.
Before growing up to become a major figure in the civil rights movement, a boy finds a role model.
Buffing up a childhood tale told by her renowned father, Young Shelton describes how young Andrew saw scary men marching in his New Orleans neighborhood (“It sounded like they were yelling ‘Hi, Hitler!’ ”). In response to his questions, his father took him to see a newsreel of Jesse Owens (“a runner who looked like me”) triumphing in the 1936 Olympics. “Racism is a sickness,” his father tells him. “We’ve got to help folks like that.” How? “Well, you can start by just being the best person you can be,” his father replies. “It’s what you do that counts.” In James’ hazy chalk pastels, Andrew joins racially diverse playmates (including a White child with an Irish accent proudly displaying the nickel he got from his aunt as a bribe to stop playing with “those Colored boys”) in tag and other games, playing catch with his dad, sitting in the midst of a cheering crowd in the local theater’s segregated balcony, and finally visualizing himself pelting down a track alongside his new hero—“head up, back straight, eyes focused,” as a thematically repeated line has it, on the finish line. An afterword by Young Shelton explains that she retold this story, told to her many times growing up, drawing from conversations with Young and from her own research; family photos are also included. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A pivotal moment in a child’s life, at once stirring and authentically personal. (illustrator’s note) (Autobiographical picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-545-55465-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
Quick and slick, but ably makes its case.
The distinguished jurist stands tall as a role model.
Not literally tall, of course—not only was she actually tiny but, as with all the other bobbleheaded caricatures in the “Ordinary People Change the World” series, Ginsburg, sporting huge eyeglasses on an outsize head over black judicial robes even in childhood, remains a doll-like figure in all of Eliopoulos’ cartoon scenes. It’s in the frank acknowledgment of the sexism and antisemitism she resolutely overcame as she went from reading about “real female heroes” to becoming one—and also the clear statement of how she so brilliantly applied the principle of “tikkun olam” (“repairing the world”) in her career to the notion that women and men should have the same legal rights—that her stature comes clear. For all the brevity of his profile, Meltzer spares some attention for her private life, too (“This is Marty. He loved me, and he loved my brains. So I married him!”). Other judicial activists of the past and present, all identified and including the current crop of female Supreme Court justices, line up with a diversely hued and abled group of younger followers to pay tribute in final scenes. “Fight for the things you care about,” as a typically savvy final quote has it, “but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”
Quick and slick, but ably makes its case. (timeline, photos, source list, further reading) (Picture-book biography. 7-9)Pub Date: Jan. 9, 2024
ISBN: 9780593533338
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Rocky Pond Books/Penguin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2023
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