The story of Aunt Clara Brown deserves to be better known. As Patricia McKissack writes in the introduction, Aunt Clara Brown was “a classic American hero.” Born a slave, probably in 1800 in Virginia, Clara was sold with her mother to a farmer named Ambrose Smith. In 1809, the Smith family moved west to Kentucky by covered wagon over the Wilderness Road. Eventually, Clara purchased her freedom, moved to St. Louis, and later to Colorado in the Colorado Gold Rush of 1849. Always she searched for her daughter, Eliza Jane, sold on the auction block, stolen from her life. When the Civil War ended, Clara returned to the South to look for her daughter and, instead, found a new “family” of dispossessed former slaves and settled them in Colorado. At the end of her life, Clara was reunited with Eliza Jane, after 46 years and 5,000 miles of traveling and searching, “a million tears, a lifetime of faith that one day, despite all odds, this very moment would come to pass.” This entry in the newly reinvigorated Landmark series is lively, well written, and full of historical detail, an impassioned account of racism faced and transcended. Each chapter is followed by information on such historical events such as the Dred Scott Case, the Underground Railroad, the Missouri Compromise, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Readers will come to care about Clara Brown and learn much about the times in which she lived. A fine work for biography fans and a necessity for American history collections. (introduction, author’s note, notes on research, bibliography, acknowledgments, photo credits, index) (Nonfiction. 9+)
Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2002
ISBN: 0-375-81092-7
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A breezy, bustling bucketful of courageous acts and eye-popping feats.
Why should grown-ups get all the historical, scientific, athletic, cinematic, and artistic glory?
Choosing exemplars from both past and present, Mitchell includes but goes well beyond Alexander the Great, Anne Frank, and like usual suspects to introduce a host of lesser-known luminaries. These include Shapur II, who was formally crowned king of Persia before he was born, Indian dancer/professional architect Sheila Sri Prakash, transgender spokesperson Jazz Jennings, inventor Param Jaggi, and an international host of other teen or preteen activists and prodigies. The individual portraits range from one paragraph to several pages in length, and they are interspersed with group tributes to, for instance, the Nazi-resisting “Swingkinder,” the striking New York City newsboys, and the marchers of the Birmingham Children’s Crusade. Mitchell even offers would-be villains a role model in Elagabalus, “boy emperor of Rome,” though she notes that he, at least, came to an awful end: “Then, then! They dumped his remains in the Tiber River, to be nommed by fish for all eternity.” The entries are arranged in no evident order, and though the backmatter includes multiple booklists, a personality quiz, a glossary, and even a quick Braille primer (with Braille jokes to decode), there is no index. Still, for readers whose fires need lighting, there’s motivational kindling on nearly every page.
A breezy, bustling bucketful of courageous acts and eye-popping feats. (finished illustrations not seen) (Collective biography. 10-13)Pub Date: May 10, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-14-751813-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Puffin
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2015
From a long-lived American legend, this rich volume is a national treasure.
Much has been written about the black women mathematicians who worked behind the scenes at NASA; now young readers can hear Katherine Johnson’s story in her own words.
Johnson begins her autobiography with her decision, at the age of 4, to start attending school with her brother so she could help him with his math. Impressed, the teacher opened a kindergarten class, but soon Katherine was skipping entire grades. Her family relocated so that she and her siblings could attend high school and college (beyond seventh grade, there was no school for “colored” youth in their hometown). Johnson graduated college at 18 with degrees in French and mathematics before going on to teach and pursue her now-famous career at NASA, yet she comes across as humble and warm, passing on to her children the refrain her father taught her as inoculation against racism: “You are no better than anyone else, but nobody else is better than you.” Johnson describes the culture and way of life in each of the places where she lived and worked, with an honest portrayal of the common racial injustices and indignities alongside the shared humanity that also existed. She artfully weaves in the heart of how African American communities have survived and advanced—through “self-help and sacrificing” for the next generation. Her writing style is comfortable and conversational, making the book feel like a visit over tea that you wish would never end.
From a long-lived American legend, this rich volume is a national treasure. (Memoir. 9-adult)Pub Date: July 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5344-4083-8
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
