A welcome, behind-the-scenes look at one of modern children’s literature’s most glorious forces.
An introduction to Ursula Nordstrom, the groundbreaking 20th-century children’s editor at Harper.
Deriving its title from a Nordstrom aphorism epitomizing her game-changing role in children’s literature, this biography showcases the editor’s upbringing, apprenticeship, and extraordinary partnerships with classic kid-lit creators. Nordstrom spends most of her youth in boarding schools after her parents’ divorce. After five years clerking in Harper’s textbook division, she becomes assistant to Ida Louise Raymond, the children’s department editor, succeeding her after she retires. Nordstrom refers to her creative colleagues as “her geniuses,” and her own editorial genius proves seismic, transforming children’s literature from stodgy obedience manuals to works of imaginative power, centering children as both readers and characters. Kephart highlights Nordstrom’s work with Maurice Sendak, Margaret Wise Brown, a teenage John Steptoe, and others: “She knew what to ask her writers and artists / and how best to listen— / …and encourage their most fabulous stories.” Touching on her subject’s queer identity, Kephart characterizes Nordstrom at boarding school as “a girl who laughed, / but who could also feel alone, / and different.” Retiring to Connecticut, Nordstrom “lived with Mary Griffith, / the woman she loved.” Bristol’s illustrations—in warm browns leavened with cool pastels—depict midcentury details and varied skin tones and interpolate characters like Sendak’s Wild Things and Crockett Johnson’s Harold. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A welcome, behind-the-scenes look at one of modern children’s literature’s most glorious forces. (author’s note, sources) (Picture-book biography. 7-10)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9780593379578
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Anne Schwartz/Random
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
A picture book worth reading about a historical figure worth remembering.
An honestly told biography of an important politician whose name every American should know.
Published while the United States has its first African-American president, this story of John Roy Lynch, the first African-American speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives, lays bare the long and arduous path black Americans have walked to obtain equality. The title’s first three words—“The Amazing Age”—emphasize how many more freedoms African-Americans had during Reconstruction than for decades afterward. Barton and Tate do not shy away from honest depictions of slavery, floggings, the Ku Klux Klan, Jim Crow laws, or the various means of intimidation that whites employed to prevent blacks from voting and living lives equal to those of whites. Like President Barack Obama, Lynch was of biracial descent; born to an enslaved mother and an Irish father, he did not know hard labor until his slave mistress asked him a question that he answered honestly. Freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, Lynch had a long and varied career that points to his resilience and perseverance. Tate’s bright watercolor illustrations often belie the harshness of what takes place within them; though this sometimes creates a visual conflict, it may also make the book more palatable for young readers unaware of the violence African-Americans have suffered than fully graphic images would. A historical note, timeline, author’s and illustrator’s notes, bibliography and map are appended.
A picture book worth reading about a historical figure worth remembering. (Picture book biography. 7-10)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8028-5379-0
Page Count: 50
Publisher: Eerdmans
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015
An emotional entry point to a larger, necessary discussion on this complex and difficult subject.
The paths of four migrant children from different Central American countries cross as they enter Mexico, and together they continue their journey to the United States.
Though their reasons for undertaking the perilous journey are different, their hopes are not: They all hope for asylum in the U.S. Ten-year-old Alessandra, from Guatemala, hopes to reunite with her mother, who left four years ago. Thirteen-year-old Laura and her 7-year-old brother, Nando, from El Salvador, are going to live with relatives in the U.S. And 14-year-old Rodrigo, from Honduras, will try to join his parents in Nebraska rather than join a local gang. Along the way they encounter danger, hunger, kindness from strangers, and, most importantly, the strength of friendship with one another. Through the four children, the book provides but the barest glimpse into the reasons, hopes, and dreams of the thousands of unaccompanied minors that arrive at the U.S.–Mexico border every year. Artist Guevara has added Central American folk art–influenced details to her illustrations, giving depth to the artwork. These embellishments appear as line drawings superimposed on the watercolor scenes. The backmatter explains the reasons for the book, helping to place it within the larger context of ongoing projects at Baylor University related to the migration crisis in Central America.
An emotional entry point to a larger, necessary discussion on this complex and difficult subject. (Picture book. 7-10)Pub Date: July 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-64442-008-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Six Foot Press
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
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