Tailor-made for browsing but with plenty of nutritious content for young historians and prospective visitors.
A bounteous buffet of historical tidbits about the presidential digs and its residents.
Flynn’s heaping helpings of anecdotes, legends, facts, firsts, foods, and statistics are gathered into 40 digestible (if sometimes thematically diffuse) groupings—from “25 Facts About Rooms That Rock” to “15 Cool Facts About Everyday Life at the White House.” These infobits are set into numbered circles or boxes that are arranged on each spread in rough chronological order. Along with notes on presidential pets and perks, White House ghosts, furnishings, refurbishings, and events like state dinners and the Easter Egg Roll, the author offers nods to the original builders (some of whom were “African-American workmen, both enslaved and free”) as well as the cleaners, chefs, calligraphers, and other workers who keep the place functioning and safe. Aside, perhaps, from references to President Barack Obama’s inauguration crowd and the “80 official White House Twitter accounts,” she steers clear of controversial topics and keeps the tone cheerfully upbeat throughout. Aerial views of the White House grounds and interior (in an artfully selective cutaway) highlight a generous array of period images and photos in which people of color aren’t exactly prominent but are at least represented.
Tailor-made for browsing but with plenty of nutritious content for young historians and prospective visitors. (timeline, presidential roster) (Nonfiction. 8-13)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4263-2873-2
Page Count: 96
Publisher: National Geographic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An authentic and moving time capsule of middle school angst, trauma, and joy.
Through the author’s own childhood diary entries, a seventh grader details her inner life before and after 9/11.
Alyssa’s diary entries start in September 2000, in the first week of her seventh grade year. She’s 11 and dealing with typical preteen concerns—popularity and anxiety about grades—along with other things more particular to her own life. She’s shuffling between Queens and Manhattan to share time between her divorced parents and struggling with thick facial hair and classmates who make her feel like she’s “not a whole person” due to her mixed White and Puerto Rican heritage. Alyssa is endlessly earnest and awkward as she works up the courage to talk to her crush, Alejandro; gushes about her dreams of becoming a shoe designer; and tries to solve her burgeoning unibrow problem. The diaries also have a darker side, as a sense of impending doom builds as the entries approach 9/11, especially because Alyssa’s father works in finance in the World Trade Center. As a number of the diary entries are taken directly from the author’s originals, they effortlessly capture the loud, confusing feelings middle school brings out. The artwork, in its muted but effective periwinkle tones, lends a satisfying layer to the diary’s accessible and delightful format.
An authentic and moving time capsule of middle school angst, trauma, and joy. (author's note) (Graphic memoir. 8-13)Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-77427-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Like oil itself, this is a book that needs to be handled with special care.
In 1977, the oil carrier Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons of oil into a formerly pristine Alaskan ocean inlet, killing millions of birds, animals, and fish. Despite a cleanup, crude oil is still there.
The Winters foretold the destructive powers of the atomic bomb allusively in The Secret Project (2017), leaving the actuality to the backmatter. They make no such accommodations to young audiences in this disturbing book. From the dark front cover, on which oily blobs conceal a seabird, to the rescuer’s sad face on the back, the mother-son team emphasizes the disaster. A relatively easy-to-read and poetically heightened text introduces the situation. Oil is pumped from the Earth “all day long, all night long, / day after day, year after year” in “what had been unspoiled land, home to Native people // and thousands of caribou.” The scale of extraction is huge: There’s “a giant pipeline” leading to “enormous ships.” Then, crash. Rivers of oil gush out over three full-bleed wordless pages. Subsequent scenes show rocks, seabirds, and sea otters covered with oil. Finally, 30 years later, animals have returned to a cheerful scene. “But if you lift a rock… // oil / seeps / up.” For an adult reader, this is heartbreaking. How much more difficult might this be for an animal-loving child?
Like oil itself, this is a book that needs to be handled with special care. (author’s note, further reading) (Informational picture book. 9-12)Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-3077-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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