Gripping historical engineering drama.
On Dale Wirsing’s birthday in 1940, a 4-month-old suspension bridge collapses before his eyes.
Clean lines and an autumnal palette show young Dale walking with his parents across the brand-new span, whose sway caused it to be called Galloping Gertie. In one spread, its towers rise diagonally across the gutter and almost off the page, while Dale points excitedly—and the roadway bobs up and down in a hint of what’s to come. Attractive, modern design and a friendly trim size (approximately 7.5 by 9.75 inches) lend a necessary accessibility to this historical tale, while lively illustrations and no-nonsense text take care of the rest. Though Dale, watching the bridge from the kitchen window, frames the story, the narrative also peeks into other human-interest stories surrounding its collapse: engineer Clark Eldridge’s despair, a couple forced to abandon their truck, and multiple people trying to rescue a dog who was left in a car. (Unfortunately, the dog in fact died, but the narrator leaves that truth between the lines.) Depicting both the linearity of suspension cables and the chaos of fracturing supports, aided by well-integrated onomatopoeia, the art captures the crucial moments of swaying and breaking with remarkable accuracy and pathos. Named characters present White, with people of color depicted among the secondary illustrated cast. Six pages of endmatter neatly summarize and contextualize Gertie’s saga, revealing Eldridge’s time as a Japanese prisoner of war and recounting the legend of the giant Pacific octopus who apparently lives under the current Tacoma Narrows Bridge.
Gripping historical engineering drama. (glossary, recommended sources) (Picture book. 7-12)Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-63217-263-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Little Bigfoot/Sasquatch
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
Though a bit loose around the edges, a charmer nevertheless.
Tales of a fourth grade ne’er-do-well.
It seems that young Jordan is stuck in a never-ending string of bad luck. Sure, no one’s perfect (except maybe goody-two-shoes William Feranek), but Jordan can’t seem to keep his attention focused on the task at hand. Try as he may, things always go a bit sideways, much to his educators’ chagrin. But Jordan promises himself that fourth grade will be different. As the year unfolds, it does prove to be different, but in a way Jordan couldn’t possibly have predicted. This humorous memoir perfectly captures the square-peg-in-a-round-hole feeling many kids feel and effectively heightens that feeling with comic situations and a splendid villain. Jordan’s teacher, Mrs. Fisher, makes an excellent foil, and the book’s 1970s setting allows for her cruelty to go beyond anything most contemporary readers could expect. Unfortunately, the story begins to run out of steam once Mrs. Fisher exits. Recollections spiral, losing their focus and leading to a more “then this happened” and less cause-and-effect structure. The anecdotes are all amusing and Jordan is an endearing protagonist, but the book comes dangerously close to wearing out its welcome with sheer repetitiveness. Thankfully, it ends on a high note, one pleasant and hopeful enough that readers will overlook some of the shabbier qualities. Jordan is White and Jewish while there is some diversity among his classmates; Mrs. Fisher is White.
Though a bit loose around the edges, a charmer nevertheless. (Memoir. 8-12)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-64723-5
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Essential.
A measured corrective to pervasive myths about what is often referred to as the “first Thanksgiving.”
Contextualizing them within a Native perspective, Newell (Passamaquoddy) touches on the all-too-familiar elements of the U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving and its origins and the history of English colonization in the territory now known as New England. In addition to the voyage and landfall of the Mayflower, readers learn about the Doctrine of Discovery that arrogated the lands of non-Christian peoples to European settlers; earlier encounters between the Indigenous peoples of the region and Europeans; and the Great Dying of 1616-1619, which emptied the village of Patuxet by 1620. Short, two- to six-page chapters alternate between the story of the English settlers and exploring the complex political makeup of the region and the culture, agriculture, and technology of the Wampanoag—all before covering the evolution of the holiday. Refreshingly, the lens Newell offers is a Native one, describing how the Wampanoag and other Native peoples received the English rather than the other way around. Key words ranging from estuary to discover are printed in boldface in the narrative and defined in a closing glossary. Nelson (a member of the Leech Lake Band of Minnesota Chippewa) contributes soft line-and-color illustrations of the proceedings. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Essential. (Nonfiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-72637-4
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Scholastic Nonfiction
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
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