As an entree into the world of mathematics, this portrait of a quiet heroine is elegant, striking, and sure to inspire.
A girl mathematician? Impossible!
“Telling Sophie not to think about math was like telling a bird not to soar,” but that’s exactly what people did. Growing up a middle-class, white female in late-18th-century France, Sophie Germain was discouraged from studying, especially from studying math, a discipline reserved for educated men. Markers, gouache, and elements of collage energetically power illustrations that are often filled with numbers, expanding on the appealing text and emphasizing the concept of vibration that Sophie later illuminated. She sneaked out of bed to learn the basics, corresponded anonymously with experts, and struggled for fair treatment. Becoming a mathematician was challenging, but as the story’s repeating, titular refrain states, “nothing stopped Sophie”—not the French Revolution, not the sexism of the time, and not the mathematical complexities she worked through to discover the formula that made her the eventual winner of a prestigious academic contest. Resilience is the focus here, as well as the groundbreaking nature of her work; Sophie with her quiet focus and staunch dedication was able to make a difference by predicting patterns of vibration, information later used in architecture, as well as paving the way for other women in the field and, by implication, girls learning about math today.
As an entree into the world of mathematics, this portrait of a quiet heroine is elegant, striking, and sure to inspire. (biographical and historical notes, bibliography, author’s note, illustrator’s note) (Picture book/biography. 6-10)Pub Date: June 12, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-27820-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
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Bridges Goes to School, but here the sensibility is more personal, and the sometimes-shocking historical photos have been replaced by uplifting painted scenes.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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