This vivid portrait is sure to encourage young readers and listeners to pursue their dreams.
“…all that matters is the runner and the track.”
Spotted racing for a train, Betty Robinson was invited to join the boys high school track team, and after only three competitions, the 16-year-old white girl won the first women’s gold medal in track and field during the first Olympic Games that allowed women to run, in 1928. Action-filled illustrations give a sense of the period and focus on her runner’s stance and determined facial expressions while straightforward text points out her resolve, her experiences, and the challenges she faced as a female athlete. Betty Robinson continued to set records while training for the 1932 Olympics—until her biplane crashed and she was told she would never walk again. Wracked with pain, she began a grueling regimen that enabled her to compete in the 1936 Olympic relay and win with her team. Betty’s resilience is presented in a simple, believable way, not mentioning that recovery from such an injury may be impossible. Focusing strictly on the runner and her struggles and accomplishments—the fact that black women did not compete is not addressed while Jesse Owen’s 1936 win in Berlin is mentioned only in the endnotes—this powerful volume provides a specific but inspiring tale of athletics, feminism, resilience, and teamwork.
This vivid portrait is sure to encourage young readers and listeners to pursue their dreams. (Picture book/biography. 6-9)Pub Date: June 9, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-289607-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses.
An NBA star pays tribute to the influence of his grandfather.
In the same vein as his Long Shot (2009), illustrated by Frank Morrison, this latest from Paul prioritizes values and character: “My granddad Papa Chilly had dreams that came true,” he writes, “so maybe if I listen and watch him, / mine will too.” So it is that the wide-eyed Black child in the simply drawn illustrations rises early to get to the playground hoops before anyone else, watches his elder working hard and respecting others, hears him cheering along with the rest of the family from the stands during games, and recalls in a prose afterword that his grandfather wasn’t one to lecture but taught by example. Paul mentions in both the text and the backmatter that Papa Chilly was the first African American to own a service station in North Carolina (his presumed dream) but not that he was killed in a robbery, which has the effect of keeping the overall tone positive and the instructional content one-dimensional. Figures in the pictures are mostly dark-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-81003-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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