A beautifully illustrated testament to the continuing excellence and legacy of African American women.
Accompanied by Robinson’s brightly textured illustrations, Hudson’s text highlights trailblazing African American women from the 1700s until the present day.
Including women from all industries and spheres of activity—theater to mathematics to tennis—everyone here has made her mark. The illustrations evoke a reverence for these women and capture iconic poses, such as Zora Neale Hurston in her fur-trimmed coat and feathered cap and Angela Davis with a raised fist. Each one-page biography includes a famous, inspiring quote from its subject as epigraph. “Women know how to get things done,” for instance, introduces civil rights activist Dorothy Irene Height. Alongside familiar figures are names likely new to many readers: sculptor Augusta Fells Savage, fashion designer Ann Lowe, and Union Army nurse Susie King Taylor, for instance. Although the book does include a few members of the lesbian, bisexual, and queer community, such as Sheryl Swoopes, there is an absence of transgender women, many of whom have achieved historic firsts in the 20th and 21st centuries. It is disappointing to see the omission of such pivotal figures, who have often stood side by side with cisgender black women to advance the rights and freedoms of African Americans. The backmatter provides additional facts about each woman along with information on artifacts at the National Museum of African American History and Culture and at the National Portrait Gallery.
A beautifully illustrated testament to the continuing excellence and legacy of African American women. (Collective biography. 8-12)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-525-64581-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
With young readers diagnosed with anxiety in ever increasing numbers, this book offers a necessary mirror to many.
Young Raina is 9 when she throws up for the first time that she remembers, due to a stomach bug. Even a year later, when she is in fifth grade, she fears getting sick.
Raina begins having regular stomachaches that keep her home from school. She worries about sharing food with her friends and eating certain kinds of foods, afraid of getting sick or food poisoning. Raina’s mother enrolls her in therapy. At first Raina isn’t sure about seeing a therapist, but over time she develops healthy coping mechanisms to deal with her stress and anxiety. Her therapist helps her learn to ground herself and relax, and in turn she teaches her classmates for a school project. Amping up the green, wavy lines to evoke Raina’s nausea, Telgemeier brilliantly produces extremely accurate visual representations of stress and anxiety. Thought bubbles surround Raina in some panels, crowding her with anxious “what if”s, while in others her negative self-talk appears to be literally crushing her. Even as she copes with anxiety disorder and what is eventually diagnosed as mild irritable bowel syndrome, she experiences the typical stresses of school life, going from cheer to panic in the blink of an eye. Raina is white, and her classmates are diverse; one best friend is Korean American.
With young readers diagnosed with anxiety in ever increasing numbers, this book offers a necessary mirror to many. (Graphic memoir. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-545-85251-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
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
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