By any standards Hamilton was an unusually clear thinker and brilliant wordsmith. Here a lesser-known facet of her...
Before she died, Hamilton (1934–2002), likely the most honored writer for young people ever, also had a thing or two to tell adult audiences about her art, craft, milieu and African-American identity.
Most of those observations were aired in award speeches, keynote talks and interviews that were published, if at all, in professional journals. Adoff, the author’s husband, gathers more than 30 addresses along with “rememories”—her term, defined as “an exquisitely textured recollection, real or imagined, which is otherwise indescribable”—from him and their two children. The collection begins with a ruminative 1971 self portrait (“Each book must speak ‘This is what I have to say,’ in the hope that each reader will answer ‘That is what I wanted to know’ ”), ends with a letter savaging a critic of certain ethnic literary awards and in between carries reflections on her background, her stories and characters, her literary models (notably Hans Christian Andersen) and the effects of being a black female writer. She never repeats herself, but common themes emerge—particularly the central importance of “moral realism” in her writing, and her provocative view that American society is a weave of permanently “parallel cultures,” with those in the minority oppressed, politicized, and represented by writers whose work is infused with racial awareness. Capped by a long list of major awards and an annotated list of works, these selections—more of which will be posted later on the website that Adoff lovingly maintains—will not only spark rememories in those who knew or heard her, but leave readers and writers with profound insights into her mind and spirit.
By any standards Hamilton was an unusually clear thinker and brilliant wordsmith. Here a lesser-known facet of her glittering reputation gets a fresh shine.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-439-27193-6
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Blue Sky/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: April 8, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A delightfully captivating swatch of autobiography from the author of Kiss. Kiss, Switch Bitch and many others. Schoolboy Dahl wanted adventure. Classes bored him, there was work to be had in Africa, and war clouds loomed on the world's horizons. He finds himself with a trainee's job with Shell Oil of East Africa and winds up in what is now Tanzania. Then war comes in 1939 and Dahl's adventures truly begin. At the war's outbreak, Dahl volunteers for the RAF, signing on to be a fighter pilot. Wounded in the Libyan desert, he spends six months recuperating in a military hospital, then rejoins his unit in Greece, only to be driven back by the advancing Germans. On April 20, 1941, he goes head on against the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Athens. On-target bio installment with, one hopes, lots more of this engrossing life to come.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1986
ISBN: 0142413836
Page Count: 209
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Oct. 16, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1986
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Paulsen recalls personal experiences that he incorporated into Hatchet (1987) and its three sequels, from savage attacks by moose and mosquitoes to watching helplessly as a heart-attack victim dies. As usual, his real adventures are every bit as vivid and hair-raising as those in his fiction, and he relates them with relish—discoursing on “The Fine Art of Wilderness Nutrition,” for instance: “Something that you would never consider eating, something completely repulsive and ugly and disgusting, something so gross it would make you vomit just looking at it, becomes absolutely delicious if you’re starving.” Specific examples follow, to prove that he knows whereof he writes. The author adds incidents from his Iditarod races, describes how he made, then learned to hunt with, bow and arrow, then closes with methods of cooking outdoors sans pots or pans. It’s a patchwork, but an entertaining one, and as likely to win him new fans as to answer questions from his old ones. (Autobiography. 10-13)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-385-32650-5
Page Count: 150
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2000
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