bookshelf

WILL ROGERS

Name: WILL ROGERS
Author: Frank Keating
ISBN: 0-15-202405-0

AN AMERICAN LEGEND

by Frank Keating & illustrated by Mike Wimmer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2002

bookshelf

An attractive, heartfelt, but ultimately obscure picture-book tribute to the great American humorist and commentator. Will Rogers is presented as the quintessential Oklahoma boy: “There, on the broad back of his father’s horse, Lummox, and at his mother’s knee, he saw oceans of wheat and dreamed of touching distant skies.” It’s arranged quasi-chronologically, but rather than offering traditional biographical material, Oklahoma Governor Keating chooses instead to home in on Rogers’s character traits, from his love of flying to his ability to make people laugh. Each trait is illustrated by one of Rogers’s aphorisms: Will’s humble beginnings, for instance, lead to the saying, “No man is great if he thinks he is.” Wimmer’s (Summertime, 1999, etc.) luminous paintings also focus on Rogers’s earthy nature; in one, Will appears in a rumpled suit and with five-o’clock shadow on a campaign platform next to Franklin Roosevelt. The design is heavy on nostalgia—the text is printed in a faux-typewriter font over a background of yellowed paper tacked onto a wall. However visually appealing, though, this offering suffers from one fatal flaw: it doesn’t ever tell the reader what Will Rogers actually did in his life. There is no explicit mention of his careers in vaudeville and later in film, no substantive discussion of his writing or radio work, no explanation of his political relationships. Save for one line, “families laughed with him on radio broadcasts, in newspaper columns, and in movies,” this leaves the reader with the vague impression that Will Rogers spent his life being virtuous and dispensing homespun wisdoms—and nothing else. As it stands, without the necessary contextualizing detail to flesh out this most human man, most readers previously unfamiliar with the subject will find themselves no more familiar with him at closing. (Picture book/biography. 6-9)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2002

ISBN: 0-15-202405-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Silver Whistle/Harcourt

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2002

Categories:

CHILDREN'S BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | CHILDREN'S HISTORY

- BOOK REVIEW
HAMILTON
by Frank Keating ; illustrated by Mike Wimmer

- BOOK REVIEW
ABRAHAM
by Frank Keating ; illustrated by Mike Wimmer

- BOOK REVIEW
GEORGE
by Frank Keating & illustrated by Mike Wimmer

bookshelf

REACHING FOR THE MOON

by Buzz Aldrin & illustrated by Wendell Minor ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2005

bookshelf

In first-person voice, Aldrin highlights points from his childhood that led to his dream of being an astronaut and making the historic moon landing. Coincidental details like his mother’s maiden name, “Moon,” and his favorite movie hero, the “Lone Ranger,” suggest clues to his destiny. After West Point, he joined the Air Force because “he wanted to fly more than anything.” Minor’s usual beautiful and realistic illustrations effectively convey spatial perspectives and movement, adding depth to the narrative. However, the cover design and type layout are confusing, indicative of a biography instead of an autobiography—a brief intro could have clarified it. Aldrin’s message in an author’s note avows, “If you set your sights high, you may accomplish more than you ever dreamed.” Pair this with Don Brown’s One Giant Step for a child’s-eye view on space exploration. (Flight/space exploration chronology) (Picture book/biography. 6-9)

Pub Date: June 1, 2005

ISBN: 0-06-055445-2

Page Count: 40

Publisher: HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2005

Categories:

CHILDREN'S BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
TO THE MOON AND BACK
by Buzz Aldrin & Marianne Dyson ; illustrated by Bruce Foster

- BOOK REVIEW
LOOK TO THE STARS
by Buzz Aldrin and illustrated by Wendell Minor

bookshelf

TWENTY-ONE ELEPHANTS AND STILL STANDING

by April Jones Prince & illustrated by François Roca ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 26, 2005

bookshelf

Strong rhythms and occasional full or partial rhymes give this account of P.T. Barnum’s 1884 elephant parade across the newly opened Brooklyn Bridge an incantatory tone. Catching a whiff of public concern about the new bridge’s sturdiness, Barnum seizes the moment: “’I will stage an event / that will calm every fear, erase every worry, / about that remarkable bridge. / My display will amuse, inform / and astound some. / Or else my name isn’t Barnum!’” Using a rich palette of glowing golds and browns, Roca imbues the pachyderms with a calm solidity, sending them ambling past equally solid-looking buildings and over a truly monumental bridge—which soars over a striped Big Top tent in the final scene. A stately rendition of the episode, less exuberant, but also less fictionalized, than Phil Bildner’s Twenty-One Elephants (2004), illustrated by LeUyen Pham. (author’s note, resource list) (Picture book. 7-9)