Inspirational reading even for audiences resolute in their math avoidance.
A searching portrait of a clerk’s son whose fascination with numbers and number patterns led to renown.
Narayanan rises to the challenge of explaining this mathematician’s work in a nontechnical way by spinning her anecdotal picture of Srinivasa Ramanujan’s sadly abbreviated life around his more easily understood sense of wonder: “Like an artist exploring forms and colors or a poet exploring words and images, Ramanujan threw himself into exploring numbers.” That focus originated, she suggests, from an early consciousness of the patterns in his daily routines, like the repetitive Vedic chants and architectural structures of the nearby Sarangapani temple. A book of math problems left him “obsessed” with how numbers kept falling together into “patterns only he could see.” That phrase serves as a refrain for what came after as he struggled with both physical and cultural obstacles to leave India for faraway Cambridge University, where, fortunately, it didn’t take him long to make his mark before he died due to illness (tuberculosis, though this isn’t mentioned in the text) in 1920, at the age of 32. Gade artfully captures his subject’s keen, unselfconscious intelligence in lively views of a lad in a dhoti and, later (reluctantly donned), trousers staring intently at fanciful geometric figures and rows of numbers in strings, swirls, or tables to winkle out their secrets. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Inspirational reading even for audiences resolute in their math avoidance. (author’s note, patterns in numbers, sample problems to solve, glossary) (Picture book biography. 7-10)Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2023
ISBN: 9780802856081
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Eerdmans
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
A pivotal moment in a child’s life, at once stirring and authentically personal.
Before growing up to become a major figure in the civil rights movement, a boy finds a role model.
Buffing up a childhood tale told by her renowned father, Young Shelton describes how young Andrew saw scary men marching in his New Orleans neighborhood (“It sounded like they were yelling ‘Hi, Hitler!’ ”). In response to his questions, his father took him to see a newsreel of Jesse Owens (“a runner who looked like me”) triumphing in the 1936 Olympics. “Racism is a sickness,” his father tells him. “We’ve got to help folks like that.” How? “Well, you can start by just being the best person you can be,” his father replies. “It’s what you do that counts.” In James’ hazy chalk pastels, Andrew joins racially diverse playmates (including a White child with an Irish accent proudly displaying the nickel he got from his aunt as a bribe to stop playing with “those Colored boys”) in tag and other games, playing catch with his dad, sitting in the midst of a cheering crowd in the local theater’s segregated balcony, and finally visualizing himself pelting down a track alongside his new hero—“head up, back straight, eyes focused,” as a thematically repeated line has it, on the finish line. An afterword by Young Shelton explains that she retold this story, told to her many times growing up, drawing from conversations with Young and from her own research; family photos are also included. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A pivotal moment in a child’s life, at once stirring and authentically personal. (illustrator’s note) (Autobiographical picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-545-55465-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
Quick and slick, but ably makes its case.
The distinguished jurist stands tall as a role model.
Not literally tall, of course—not only was she actually tiny but, as with all the other bobbleheaded caricatures in the “Ordinary People Change the World” series, Ginsburg, sporting huge eyeglasses on an outsize head over black judicial robes even in childhood, remains a doll-like figure in all of Eliopoulos’ cartoon scenes. It’s in the frank acknowledgment of the sexism and antisemitism she resolutely overcame as she went from reading about “real female heroes” to becoming one—and also the clear statement of how she so brilliantly applied the principle of “tikkun olam” (“repairing the world”) in her career to the notion that women and men should have the same legal rights—that her stature comes clear. For all the brevity of his profile, Meltzer spares some attention for her private life, too (“This is Marty. He loved me, and he loved my brains. So I married him!”). Other judicial activists of the past and present, all identified and including the current crop of female Supreme Court justices, line up with a diversely hued and abled group of younger followers to pay tribute in final scenes. “Fight for the things you care about,” as a typically savvy final quote has it, “but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”
Quick and slick, but ably makes its case. (timeline, photos, source list, further reading) (Picture-book biography. 7-9)Pub Date: Jan. 9, 2024
ISBN: 9780593533338
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Rocky Pond Books/Penguin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2023
© Copyright 2024 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.
