A necessary purchase for those interested in educating global citizens.
A thoroughly contemporary look at the world’s children.
Children from 73 countries, some rarely represented in children’s books, including Malawi, Kosovo, Barbados, and Papua New Guinea, talk about their lives. Each double-page spread is devoted to one child and is jammed with photos of different sizes, a small flag, and a globe pointing out the country where they live. There is an emphasis on different types of families: Yared’s single-mom family in Ethiopia, Jack’s single-dad family in Fiji, Jenisha’s extended-family unit in Nepal, and many blended families with stepparents and half siblings. Diversity exists within families with parents from different cultures. In New Zealand, Anneke’s parents are Samoan/Tokolauan and British/Japanese. Same-sex parents are not in evidence, however. More parents than usual work in tourism, as guidebook publisher Lonely Planet used its contacts to recruit participating families, but there are urban and rural families, and at least one lives in a refugee camp. The children describe the commonalities of their lives: food, school, games, families. Technology shows up everywhere. Lluvia, age 12, from Costa Rica says: “My friends are silly and fun. We love to hang out, play on our cell phones, and take silly selfies.” Photos are appealing and layouts are varied, with short paragraphs and funny headlines. Entries are arranged alphabetically by children’s names, with a world-map key in the front.
A necessary purchase for those interested in educating global citizens. (quiz, index) (Nonfiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-78701-294-3
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Lonely Planet
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
Though usually cast as the trickster, Coyote is more victim than victimizer, making this a nice complement to other Coyote...
Two republished tales by a Greco-Cherokee author feature both folkloric and modern elements as well as new illustrations.
One of the two has never been offered south of the (Canadian) border. In “Coyote Sings to the Moon,” the doo-wop hymn sung nightly by Old Woman and all the animals except tone-deaf Coyote isn’t enough to keep Moon from hiding out at the bottom of the lake—until she is finally driven forth by Coyote’s awful wailing. She has been trying to return to the lake ever since, but that piercing howl keeps her in the sky. In “Coyote’s New Suit” he is schooled in trickery by Raven, who convinces him to steal the pelts of all the other animals while they’re bathing, sends the bare animals to take clothes from the humans’ clothesline, and then sets the stage for a ruckus by suggesting that Coyote could make space in his overcrowded closet by having a yard sale. No violence ensues, but from then to now humans and animals have not spoken to one another. In Eggenschwiler’s monochrome scenes Coyote and the rest stand on hind legs and (when stripped bare) sport human limbs. Old Woman might be Native American; the only other completely human figure is a pale-skinned girl.
Though usually cast as the trickster, Coyote is more victim than victimizer, making this a nice complement to other Coyote tales. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-55498-833-4
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
Starting with a lonely slice of pizza pictured on the cover and the first page, Thornhill launches into a wide-ranging study of the history and culture of food—where it comes from, how to eat it and what our food industries are doing to the planet. It’s a lot to hang on that slice of pizza, but there are plenty of interesting tidbits here, from Clarence Birdseye’s experiments with frozen food to how mad cow disease causes the brain to turn spongy to industrial food production and global warming. Unfortunately, the volume is designed like a bad high-school yearbook. Most pages are laid out in text boxes, each containing a paragraph on a discrete topic, but with little in the way of an organizing theme to tie together the content of the page or spread. Too many colors, too much jumbled-together information and total reliance on snippets of information make this a book for young readers more interested in browsing than reading. Kids at the upper edge of the book's range would be better served by Richie Chevat's adaptation of Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma (2009). (Nonfiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-897349-96-0
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Maple Tree Press
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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