Splendidly affirming for young readers, writers, and artists.
As children, the Brontës create their own tiny books and boundless world.
The text begins “Many years before you were born,” urging readers to “look through the window” at the rapt, rosy faces of Charlotte and Anne, two small girls. Charlotte is making an illustrated book that’s the size of a child’s palm, imagining the fortunate life of a girl named Anne. In the girls’ real life, “there has been sadness in the house for a long time”: Almost half the family has died. One poignant bird’s-eye perspective shows Charlotte, Anne, Emily, Bramwell, and their father at the dining table with empty chairs for the dead mother and sisters, though family pets sub in. (Woes like tuberculosis and the harsh boarding school the girls attended in real life go unmentioned.) The central event is their father's gift of wooden soldiers that will figure in the invented stories they write in matchbox-size books. Celebrating their free childhoods and eliding years full of struggles, the tale ends with a glance at a future when the novelist sisters “write and write.” Instructions on making a folded book are a bonus. The meticulous mixed-media illustrations are tender but never twee, as strong and lively as Yorkshire's misty air and endless moors and skies. In the images, stone structures provide solidity; domestic animals and firelit, pleasant period interiors suggest warmth. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Splendidly affirming for young readers, writers, and artists. (author’s note, timeline, sources) (Informational picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2023
ISBN: 9780735263697
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
A delightful story of love and hope.
Families are formed everywhere—including large metropolitan mass-transit systems!
Baby Kevin, initially known as “Danny ACE Doe,” was found in the New York City’s 14th Street subway station, which serves the A-C-E lines, by one of his future fathers, Danny. Kevin’s other father, Pete (author Mercurio), serves as the narrator, explaining how the two men came to add the newborn to their family. Readers are given an abridged version of the story from Danny and Pete’s point of view as they work to formally adopt Kevin and bring him home in time for Christmas. The story excels at highlighting the determination of loving fathers while still including realistic moments of hesitation, doubt, and fear that occur for new and soon-to-be parents. The language is mindful of its audience (for example using “piggy banks” instead of “bank accounts” to discuss finances) while never patronizing young readers. Espinosa’s posterlike artwork—which presents the cleanest New York readers are ever likely to see—extends the text and makes use of unexpected angles to heighten emotional scenes and moments of urgency. The diversity of skin tones, ages, and faces (Danny and Pete both present white, and Kevin has light brown skin) befits the Big Apple. Family snapshots and a closing author’s note emphasize that the most important thing in any family is love. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11.3-by-18-inch double-page spreads viewed at 43% of actual size.)
A delightful story of love and hope. (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-525-42754-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
A unique angle on a watershed moment in the civil rights era.
The New Orleans school child who famously broke the color line in 1960 while surrounded by federal marshals describes the early days of her experience from a 6-year-old’s perspective.
Bridges told her tale to younger children in 2009’s Ruby Bridges Goes to School, but here the sensibility is more personal, and the sometimes-shocking historical photos have been replaced by uplifting painted scenes. “I didn’t find out what being ‘the first’ really meant until the day I arrived at this new school,” she writes. Unfrightened by the crowd of “screaming white people” that greets her at the school’s door (she thinks it’s like Mardi Gras) but surprised to find herself the only child in her classroom, and even the entire building, she gradually realizes the significance of her act as (in Smith’s illustration) she compares a small personal photo to the all-White class photos posted on a bulletin board and sees the difference. As she reflects on her new understanding, symbolic scenes first depict other dark-skinned children marching into classes in her wake to friendly greetings from lighter-skinned classmates (“School is just school,” she sensibly concludes, “and kids are just kids”) and finally an image of the bright-eyed icon posed next to a soaring bridge of reconciliation. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A unique angle on a watershed moment in the civil rights era. (author and illustrator notes, glossary) (Autobiographical picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-75388-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
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