A reminder that many appreciate you even if those in charge do not.
No girls allowed is a phrase Anne Innis Dagg has heard her whole life.
As a child, Dagg, a White Canadian, was told that a girl’s future was to be a good wife and mother. She could not play hockey with her brothers, and she was discouraged from studying science. When, as a young woman, she had saved up enough money to travel to Africa to study giraffes, her lifelong love, people from all over the globe told her they would not support her. Determined, Dagg left everything she knew to undertake a two-month journey to South Africa to document her beloved animals. Back in Canada, married and with her doctorate, Dagg couldn’t find a job as a full-time professor because men said she was unqualified and that married women should not work out of their homes. Dagg sued. She began writing about the inequality women faced, both in academia and in life in general. Over 50 years later, Dagg returned to Africa to help conservationists prevent the extinction of giraffes. The text is spare and straightforward, and each double-page spread features a footnote with further and explained facts and definitions. Several pages include letters to and from Dagg; unfortunately, nothing in the backmatter indicates whether these are real or imagined. Scenes of Africa emphasize the vast savannas that giraffes call home. Thisdale’s exquisite and detailed illustrations are so clear they almost seem like photographs. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A reminder that many appreciate you even if those in charge do not. (author's note, glossary, further reading) (Picture book/biography. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-55455-540-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Fitzhenry & Whiteside
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere.
This book is buzzing with trivia.
Follow a swarm of bees as they leave a beekeeper’s apiary in search of a new home. As the scout bees traverse the fields, readers are provided with a potpourri of facts and statements about bees. The information is scattered—much like the scout bees—and as a result, both the nominal plot and informational content are tissue-thin. There are some interesting facts throughout the book, but many pieces of trivia are too, well trivial, to prove useful. For example, as the bees travel, readers learn that “onion flowers are round and fluffy” and “fennel is a plant that is used in cooking.” Other facts are oversimplified and as a result are not accurate. For example, monofloral honey is defined as “made by bees who visit just one kind of flower” with no acknowledgment of the fact that bees may range widely, and swarm activity is described as a springtime event, when it can also occur in summer and early fall. The information in the book, such as species identification and measurement units, is directed toward British readers. The flat, thin-lined artwork does little to enhance the story, but an “I spy” game challenging readers to find a specific bee throughout is amusing.
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere. (Informational picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-500-65265-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A celebration of progressive Judaism and an inclusive primer on Jews making a difference in the world.
This wide-ranging collection of short biographies highlights 36 Jewish figures from around the globe and across centuries.
Explicitly pushing back against homogenous depictions of Jewish people, the authors demonstrate the ethnic, racial, and gender diversity of Jews. Each spread includes a brief biography paired with a stylized portrait reminiscent of those in Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo’s Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls (2016). A pull quote or sidebar accompanies each subject; sidebars include “Highlighting Jewish Paralympic Athletes,” “Jewish Stringed Music,” and “Ethiopian Jews in Israel.” Kleinrock and Pritchard’s roster of subjects makes a compelling case for the vastness and variety of Jewish experience—from a contemporary Ethiopian American teen to a 16th-century Portuguese philanthropist—while still allowing them to acknowledge better-known figures. The entry on Raquel Montoya-Lewis, an associate justice of the Washington Supreme Court and an enrolled member of the Pueblo Isleta Indian tribe, discusses her mission to reimagine criminal justice for Indigenous people; the sidebar name-checks Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan. The bios are organized around themes of Jewish principles such as Pikuach Nefesh (translated from the Hebrew as “to save a life”) and Adam Yachid (translated as the “unique value of every person”); each section includes an introduction to an organization that centers diverse Jewish experiences.
A celebration of progressive Judaism and an inclusive primer on Jews making a difference in the world. (resources) (Nonfiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2024
ISBN: 9780063285712
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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