This slender volume accomplishes a great deal.
Accomplished ballerina Copeland pays homage to her predecessors and contemporaries in this roundup of Black ballerinas.
Copeland introduces this collection from her perspective as someone who was simply a proud Black girl growing up but whose identity became more complex when she became a professional dancer. The list of Black ballerinas included here features those who played a role in Copeland’s journey, whether they never met, had only one encounter, or enjoyed an ongoing relationship. Copeland aptly points out that biracial and light-skinned women are overrepresented in this list, as they are in the dance world, with colorism being an additional barrier for darker-skinned dancers. Among these talented, dedicated artists, whose birth years range from 1917 to 1998, patterns emerge: exclusion from the White world of ballet; perseverance; international travel for opportunities; giving back to their communities; and leaving strong legacies within the dance world—sometimes documented and sometimes not. Each ballerina’s ink–and-watercolor image appears with a quote of hers on a full page facing a page of densely set, small, gray text summarizing her dance career and personal connection to Copeland. Barnes’ gorgeous illustrations of these strong, graceful dancers are enough to keep readers turning pages. With each story, the landscape of an underappreciated community of dancers of color grows wider. The perspective of an insider to this world intensifies the intimacy and interest.
This slender volume accomplishes a great deal. (Biography. 11-16)Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-534-47424-6
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2021
The life of Manjiro Nakahama, also known as John Mung, makes an amazing story: shipwrecked as a young fisherman for months on a remote island, rescued by an American whaler, he became the first Japanese resident of the US. Then, after further adventures at sea and in the California gold fields, he returned to Japan where his first-hand knowledge of America and its people earned him a central role in the modernization of his country after its centuries of peaceful isolation had ended. Expanding a passage from her Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun (1985, Newbery Honor), Blumberg not only delivers an absorbing tale of severe hardships and startling accomplishments, but also takes side excursions to give readers vivid pictures of life in mid-19th-century Japan, aboard a whaler, and amidst the California Gold Rush. The illustrations, a generous mix of contemporary photos and prints with Manjiro’s own simple, expressive drawings interspersed, are at least as revealing. Seeing a photo of Commodore Perry side by side with a Japanese artist’s painted portrait, or strange renditions of a New England town and a steam train, based solely on Manjiro’s verbal descriptions, not only captures the unique flavor of Japanese art, but points up just how high were the self-imposed barriers that separated Japan from the rest of the world. Once again, Blumberg shows her ability to combine high adventure with vivid historical detail to open a window onto the past. (source note) (Biography. 10-13)
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2001
ISBN: 0-688-17484-1
Page Count: 80
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Born in 1880 in a tiny backwater in Alabama, Helen Keller lived a life familiar to many from the play and movie The Miracle Worker, as well as countless biographies. There’s no denying the drama in the story of the deaf and blind child for whom the world of language became possible through a dedicated and fanatically stubborn teacher, Annie Sullivan. But Helen’s life after that is even more remarkable: she went to high school and then to Radcliffe; she was a radical political thinker and a member of the Wobblies; she supported herself by lecture tours and vaudeville excursions as well as through the kindness of many. Dash (The Longitude Prize, p. 1483) does a clear-sighted and absorbing job of examining Annie’s prickly personality and the tender family that she, Helen, and Annie’s husband John Macy formed. She touches on the family pressures that conspired to keep Helen from her own pursuit of love and marriage; she makes vivid not only Helen’s brilliant and vibrant intelligence and personality, but the support of many people who loved her, cared for her, and served her. She also does not shrink from the describing the social and class divisions that kept some from crediting Annie Sullivan and others intent on making Helen into a puppet and no more. Riveting reading for students in need of inspiration, or who’re overcoming disability or studying changing expectations for women. (Biography. 10-14)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-590-90715-8
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2000
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