An inspiring story based on a dazzlingly influential life.
Curious as a child, exploring mosques and palaces in Baghdad and wanting to create and construct the impossible, Zaha Hadid grew up to influence the field of architecture.
In Tentler-Krylov’s telling, young Hadid’s interests in construction sites and math grow as she ages, leading to her getting a math degree in college and moving to London, where she studies architecture. She spends hours studying and sketching. Although she makes a name for herself in England, the ever unconventional Hadid is not hired to design buildings, so she enters competitions. After some difficulty, one of her innovative designs becomes reality. Even when faced with obstacles and rejection, Hadid continues to defy form. Hadid dares to challenge the critics and meets negative feedback with determination and confidence, ultimately becoming the first woman to design an art museum in the United States and the youngest ever to win the prestigious Pritzker Prize. Tentler-Krylov’s brushy watercolor illustrations create movement on the page, highlighting Hadid’s unique tilting, swaying, and floating structures. Short paragraphs advance the narrative spread by spread, describing how her subject’s passion became her career. An architect herself, the author/illustrator provides an enthusiastic note explaining her interest in Hadid along with a timeline and a bibliography; quoted dialogue is unsourced, and a small note on the copyright page emphasizes that the book is historical fiction and not strict biography.
An inspiring story based on a dazzlingly influential life. (Picture book. 5-10)Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-28283-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2020
Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book.
Ada Twist’s incessant stream of questions leads to answers that help solve a neighborhood crisis.
Ada conducts experiments at home to answer questions such as, why does Mom’s coffee smell stronger than Dad’s coffee? Each answer leads to another question, another hypothesis, and another experiment, which is how she goes from collecting data on backyard birds for a citizen-science project to helping Rosie Revere figure out how to get her uncle Ned down from the sky, where his helium-filled “perilous pants” are keeping him afloat. The Questioneers—Rosie the engineer, Iggy Peck the architect, and Ada the scientist—work together, asking questions like scientists. Armed with knowledge (of molecules and air pressure, force and temperature) but more importantly, with curiosity, Ada works out a solution. Ada is a recognizable, three-dimensional girl in this delightfully silly chapter book: tirelessly curious and determined yet easily excited and still learning to express herself. If science concepts aren’t completely clear in this romp, relationships and emotions certainly are. In playful full- and half-page illustrations that break up the text, Ada is black with Afro-textured hair; Rosie and Iggy are white. A closing section on citizen science may inspire readers to get involved in science too; on the other hand, the “Ode to a Gas!” may just puzzle them. Other backmatter topics include the importance of bird study and the threat palm-oil use poses to rainforests.
Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: April 16, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3422-9
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A powerful retrospective glimpse at a key event.
A vibrantly illustrated account of the Birmingham Children’s Crusade through the eyes of a young girl who volunteers to participate.
Morrison’s signature style depicts each black child throughout the book as a distinct individual; on the endpapers, children hold signs that collectively create a “Civil Rights and the Children’s Crusade” timeline, placing the events of the book in the context of the greater movement. When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. comes to speak at her church, a girl and her brother volunteer to march in their parents’ stead. The narrative succinctly explains why the Children’s Crusade was a necessary logistical move, one that children and parents made with careful consideration and despite fear. Lines of text (“Let the children march. / They will lead the way // The path may be long and / troubled, but I’m gonna walk on!”) are placed within the illustrations in bold swoops for emphasis. Morrison’s powerful use of perspective makes his beautiful oil paintings even more dynamic and conveys the intensity of the situations depicted, including the children’s being arrested, hosed, and jailed. The child crusaders, regardless of how badly they’re treated, never lose their dignity, which the art conveys flawlessly. While the children win the day, such details as the Confederate flag subtly connect the struggle to the current day.
A powerful retrospective glimpse at a key event. (timeline, afterword, artist’s statement, quote sources, bibliography) (Picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-544-70452-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
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