With insight and obvious skill, St. George (Sacagawea, 1997, etc.) recreates four presidential assassinations and six attempts, plus Squeaky Fromme’s 1975 stunt with an unloaded gun. The author has little time for the assassins—McKinley’s killer, Leon F. Czolgosz, is succinctly described as “a slightly built, rather handsome young man with large vacant eyes”—but surrounds her accounts of the incidents themselves with judicious evaluations of each president’s character, career, and policies. She notes that Garfield and McKinley were killed not by bullets but by subsequent infections, presents the official version of JFK’s death but leaves the door open for conspiracy theorists, and concludes with a look at the Secret Service (founded, ironically, by Lincoln the very day he was shot). Enhanced by plenty of black-and-white photographs and melodramatic period illustrations, and backed up by a substantial book list, this will not only give readers an eyewitness view of these tragedies and near-tragedies, but a deeper understanding of their causes, consequences, and of the people involved. (b&w photos, reproductions, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: Nov. 15, 1999
ISBN: 0-8234-1428-0
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1999
Whirls of tiny, brightly dressed people’some with wings—fill Kleven’s kaleidoscopic portraits of sun-drenched Los Angeles neighborhoods and landmarks; the Los Angeles—based authors supply equally colorful accounts of the city’s growth, festivals, and citizens, using an appended chronology to squeeze in a few more anecdotes. As does Kathy Jakobsen’s My New York (1998), Jaskol and Lewis’s book captures a vivid sense of a major urban area’s bustle, diversity, and distinctive character; young Angelenos will get a hearty dose of civic pride, and children everywhere will find new details in the vibrant illustrations at every pass. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-10)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-525-46214-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
Koller (Bouncing on the Bed, p. 143, etc.) portrays a Narragansett nickommoh, or celebratory gathering, from which it is very likely the tradition of Thanksgiving was drawn. As explained in an exemplary note—brief, clear, interesting—at the end of the book, these gatherings occurred 13 times a year, once each lunar month. The harvest gathering is one of the larger gatherings: a great lodge was built, copious food was prepared, and music and dance extended deep into the night. Koller laces the text with a good selection of Narragansett words, found in the glossary (although there is no key to pronunciation, even for words such as Taqountikeeswush and Puttuckquapuonck). The text is written as a chanted prose poem, with much repetition, which can be both incantatory and hackneyed, as when “frost lies thick on the fields at dawn, and the winged ones pass overhead in great numbers.” Mostly the phrases are stirring—as are Sewall’s scratchboard evocations—and often inspirational—for this nickommoh puts to shame what has become known as the day before the launch of the holiday shopping season. (Picture book. 6-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-689-81094-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
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