The zeal to extend interest in the “Greatest Generation” to young children brings the 34th US president to picture book readers. Adler’s (Young Cam Jansen and the Double Beach Mystery, p. 560, etc.) straightforward, though largely undistinguished, text opens with Eisenhower’s triumphal 1945 return from Europe, then backtracks to fill in the details of the general’s life from his birth in Denison, Texas, and youth in Abilene, Kansas, to his education at West Point and his early military career. The second world war gets six pages, Eisenhower’s presidency, three. Handsome archival photographs provide the illustrations, and indeed constitute the high point. Quotations from primary source materials appear throughout, giving young readers a direct glimpse into history, but are regrettably unsourced both within the text and in the back matter (which includes a timeline and author’s notes). This offering’s greatest weakness, however, lies in the necessary brevity of coverage of a time and events that may not be familiar to primary grade readers. Terms such as the Allied forces and segregation are introduced without explanation, and the celebratory “Taxes went down and incomes went up” will likely mean little to the designated audience. Still, as an accompaniment to an introduction to the events of WWII and the 1950s, it will be useful. (Picture book/biography. 7-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2002
ISBN: 0-8234-1702-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2002
Trickling, bubbling, swirling, rushing, a river flows down from its mountain beginnings, past peaceful country and bustling city on its way to the sea. Hooper (The Drop in My Drink, 1998, etc.) artfully evokes the water’s changing character as it transforms from “milky-cold / rattling-bold” to a wide, slow “sliding past mudflats / looping through marshes” to the end of its journey. Willey, best known for illustrating Geraldine McCaughrean’s spectacular folk-tale collections, contributes finely detailed scenes crafted in shimmering, intricate blues and greens, capturing mountain’s chill, the bucolic serenity of passing pastures, and a sense of mystery in the water’s shadowy depths. Though Hooper refers to “the cans and cartons / and bits of old wood” being swept along, there’s no direct conservation agenda here (for that, see Debby Atwell’s River, 1999), just appreciation for the river’s beauty and being. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0792-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2000
An uncomplicated opener, with some funny bits and a clear but not heavy agenda.
Hank Zipzer, poster boy for dyslexic middle graders everywhere, stars in a new prequel series highlighting second-grade trials and triumphs.
Hank’s hopes of playing Aqua Fly, a comic-book character, in the upcoming class play founder when, despite plenty of coaching and preparation, he freezes up during tryouts. He is not particularly comforted when his sympathetic teacher adds a nonspeaking role as a bookmark to the play just for him. Following the pattern laid down in his previous appearances as an older child, he gets plenty of help and support from understanding friends (including Ashley Wong, a new apartment-house neighbor). He even manages to turn lemons into lemonade with a quick bit of improv when Nick “the Tick” McKelty, the sneering classmate who took his preferred role, blanks on his lines during the performance. As the aforementioned bully not only chokes in the clutch and gets a demeaning nickname, but is fat, boastful and eats like a pig, the authors’ sensitivity is rather one-sided. Still, Hank has a winning way of bouncing back from adversity, and like the frequent black-and-white line-and-wash drawings, the typeface is designed with easy legibility in mind.
An uncomplicated opener, with some funny bits and a clear but not heavy agenda. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-448-48239-2
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
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