Carefully chosen details paint a portrait of a remarkable young person.
A profile of the early life of a 19th-century musical prodigy.
As a child, Amy Cheney Beach (1867-1944) hummed in perfect pitch and sang an entire anthem at age 2 to amazed family and friends. Ironically, her music-teacher mother, who had “strong religious beliefs” and didn’t want her child drawing attention to herself, was one of her biggest obstacles to progress. DeLems presents the ongoing battle and the child’s perseverance with an abundance of strong verbs: Aunt Franc, who ultimately intervened, “plopped” the 4-year-old on the piano bench. “Mama objected. Aunt Franc persisted. And Amy pounced into action.” Three original waltzes flowed out. Jay’s New Hampshire landscapes channel Grant Wood’s painting The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, with its saltbox homes and curving pathways. The crackle varnish on her oil compositions lends an aged appearance appropriate to the subject. Jay creates energy and interest by displaying classical composers dancing through the sheet music as Amy practices and Mother Goose characters skipping through dynamic musical staves as the girl composes her own melodies for the nursery rhymes. Readers see multiple images of her beautifully poised hands as she plays at her Boston Music Hall debut, indicating the fullness of her sound. The narrative concludes with that performance at age 16, but extensive backmatter covers the rest of her life. Amy was White, as are most of the characters depicted. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Carefully chosen details paint a portrait of a remarkable young person. (author’s note, photographs, timeline, glossary, bibliography, websites, places to visit, picture credits) (Picture-book biography. 5-10)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-66268-008-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Calkins Creek/Astra Books for Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2023
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Bridges Goes to School, but here the sensibility is more personal, and the sometimes-shocking historical photos have been replaced by uplifting painted scenes.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
PERSPECTIVES
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
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