Poetic, moving, and empowering.
This is a story inspired by the life of Loujain AlHathloul, the Saudi women’s rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee who challenged patriarchy and continues to be unjustly persecuted.
Young Loujain dreams of flying like her dad, who literally has wings in this gently fantastical tale. She longs to see a field of sunflowers pictured in a photo given to her by her father, but the only way to get there is by flying, and girls aren’t allowed to fly. When she tells her friends about her dream of flying, they ridicule her. After a good cry in her bedroom, Loujain confronts her father: “It is not fair that I cannot fly,” she asserts. “Why not me?” Her mother agrees: “You have to believe things will change. Otherwise they never will.” A wordless montage across a double-page spread shows Loujain receiving flying lessons from her father. Soon, he is able to take her on daily practice flights at sunrise. Finally, one day, Loujain is ready for the longest flight yet—the journey to the field of a million sunflowers. Green’s illustrations, rendered in acrylic gouache and colored pencil, are beautifully representational, using plant, flower, star, moon, and sky motifs to capture the flourishing of a young girl’s potential and the scope of her ambition. Cowritten by AlHathloul’s sister (also an activist), this inspiring story is capped off with a short, informative bio of Loujain AlHathloul and a profound letter to the reader about summoning one’s courage to dream and create a better world.
Poetic, moving, and empowering. (Picture book. 5-12)Pub Date: March 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-66265-064-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: minedition
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2022
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.
How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!
John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
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