An inspiring tale that just might spark greater voter participation.
Adapted from Weiss’ 2018 book of the same title, this work focuses on the final push for the ratification of the 19th Amendment.
By the summer of 1920, 35 states had ratified the amendment to give women the right to vote, and only one more state was needed to change the Constitution. Tennessee scheduled a special legislative session to decide if it would become that final state. Suffragists and those opposing ratification—the Antis—poured into the state, using every legal power, and a few that weren’t, to steer legislators. Amid promises and betrayals and through numerous votes and procedural diversions, suspense is carefully sustained—even though readers know the eventual outcome. Unfortunately, the depiction of Antis, the Southerners described as “froth[ing] with rage,” is oversimplified. Portrayed as disdainful of women and racially motivated, many (less malevolently if with no greater enlightenment) just clung to the 19th-century belief that the idealized women’s sphere would be destroyed by participation in the sordid world of politics. The racism within the suffrage movement is glancingly addressed. To keep suspense high, Weiss also represents this as quite likely the last hope for ratification, although Connecticut would vote to ratify just a month later. Brief profiles of women involved in both the radical and the more traditional wings of the suffrage movement offer rich insight into the determination of these brave crusaders. Fine backmatter rounds out this fascinating if not quite balanced presentation.
An inspiring tale that just might spark greater voter participation. (bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 10-16)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-12518-2
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
A beautiful, powerful reflection on a tragic history.
In spare verse, Lowry reflects on moments in her childhood, including the bombings of Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima.
When she was a child, Lowry played at Waikiki Beach with her grandmother while her father filmed. In the old home movie, the USS Arizona appears through the mist on the horizon. Looking back at her childhood in Hawaii and then Japan, Lowry reflects on the bombings that began and ended a war and how they affected and connected everyone involved. In Part 1, she shares the lives and actions of sailors at Pearl Harbor. Part 2 is stories of civilians in Hiroshima affected by the bombing. Part 3 presents her own experience as an American in Japan shortly after the war ended. The poems bring the haunting human scale of war to the forefront, like the Christmas cards a sailor sent days before he died or the 4-year-old who was buried with his red tricycle after Hiroshima. All the personal stories—of sailors, civilians, and Lowry herself—are grounding. There is heartbreak and hope, reminding readers to reflect on the past to create a more peaceful future. Lowry uses a variety of poetry styles, identifying some, such as triolet and haiku. Pak’s graphite illustrations are like still shots of history, adding to the emotion and somber feeling. He includes some sailors of color among the mostly white U.S. forces; Lowry is white.
A beautiful, powerful reflection on a tragic history. (author’s note, bibliography) (Memoir/poetry. 10-14)Pub Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-358-12940-0
Page Count: 80
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
PROFILES
An inventive introduction to a fascinating historical figure.
Another collaborative effort by the team that created The Poet King of Tezcoco: A Great Leader of Ancient Mexico (2007) chronicles the life of a controversial figure in pre-colonial Mesoamerica.
The indigenous woman who would serve as Hernán Cortés’ interpreter and companion was born in the early 1500s as Malinali and later christened Marina. She is now called La Malinche. Besides serving as translator to the Spaniard, she also gave him advice on native customs, religious beliefs and the ways of the Aztec. While Marina’s decision to help the Spanish in their often brutal quest for supremacy has led to many negative associations, others see her as the mother of all Mexicans, as she and Cortés had the first recorded mestizo. Although many of the details surrounding the specifics of Marina’s life were unrecorded, Serrano strengthens the narrative with quotations by her contemporaries and provides a balanced look at the life of a complicated, oft-maligned woman. Headers provide structure as events sometimes shift from the specific to the very broad, and some important facts are glossed over or relegated to the timeline. Reminiscent of pre-colonial documents, the illustrations convey both Marina’s adulation of Cortés and the violence of the Spanish conquest, complete with severed limbs, decapitations and more.
An inventive introduction to a fascinating historical figure. (map, chronology, glossary, sources and further reading) (Nonfiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-55498-111-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: Sept. 11, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
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