Allen skillfully blends background information and eyewitness accounts from Japanese pilots, American servicemen, and nurses in this copiously illustrated addition to the canon of books commemorating December 7, 1941. Japanese pilots and submarine crew recall their intensive training in the months prior to December. Americans on board destroyers and battleships remember where they were when the first explosions ripped apart their ships. An army nurse talks about the smell of burning oil on a base previously scented with gardenias and hibiscus. Allen also writes briefly about the memorials on Hawaii, the American internment of Japanese, and the Americans of Japanese ancestry who fought so gallantly in Europe. Detailed physical and political maps and a timeline help readers follow the events of the day and of WWII. While Allen refers to issues relating to codes, code-breaking, and delays in delivery of messages, his focus is primarily on providing a “you-are-there” feeling for readers and a connection to the pervading sense of bewilderment, fear, and courage exhibited by those whose lives were threatened. A handsome title that will appeal to WWII buffs. Includes Web sites, bibliography, index, and a foreword by the diver Robert D. Ballard. (Nonfiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7922-6690-0
Page Count: 64
Publisher: National Geographic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A pleasing new picture book looks at George Washington’s career through an agricultural lens. Sprinkling excerpts from his letters and diaries throughout to allow its subject to speak in his own voice, the narrative makes a convincing case for Washington’s place as the nation’s First Farmer. His innovations, in addition to applying the scientific method to compost, include a combination plow-tiller-harrow, the popularization of the mule and a two-level barn that put horses to work at threshing grain in any weather. Thomas integrates Washington’s military and political adventures into her account, making clear that it was his frustration as a farmer that caused him to join the revolutionary cause. Lane’s oil illustrations, while sometimes stiff, appropriately portray a man who was happiest when working the land. Backmatter includes a timeline, author’s notes on both Mount Vernon and Washington the slaveholder, resources for further exploration and a bibliography. (Picture book/biography. 8-12)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-59078-460-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Calkins Creek/Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The author of Cod’s Tale (2001) again demonstrates a dab hand at recasting his adult work for a younger audience. Here the topic is salt, “the only rock eaten by human beings,” and, as he engrossingly demonstrates, “the object of wars and revolutions” throughout recorded history and before. Between his opening disquisition on its chemical composition and a closing timeline, he explores salt’s sources and methods of extraction, its worldwide economic influences from prehistoric domestication of animals to Gandhi’s Salt March, its many uses as a preservative and industrial product, its culinary and even, as the source for words like “salary” and “salad,” its linguistic history. Along with lucid maps and diagrams, Schindler supplies detailed, sometimes fanciful scenes to go along, finishing with a view of young folk chowing down on orders of French fries as ghostly figures from history look on. Some of Kurlansky’s claims are exaggerated (the Erie and other canals were built to transport more than just salt, for instance), and there are no leads to further resources, but this salutary (in more ways than one) micro-history will have young readers lifting their shakers in tribute. (Picture book/nonfiction. 8-10)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-399-23998-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2006
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