A fascinating worldwide tour.
Dance can be found all over the world, providing insights into cultures, religions, and history.
Organized in loosely defined categories of ceremonial, folk, and performance dance, the book explores the various dances’ origins, movements, and accompanying music. Colorful stock photos display ethnically and culturally diverse subjects, highlighting the unique appearances of the dancers and their costumes and accessories. Clarke examines the Lunar New Year dragon dance, the Hawaiian hula, the Native American powwow, the dance of the Turkish whirling dervishes, and a dance performed by the Dagon people of Mali. Many folk dances evolved as expressions of cooperation and today are danced to demonstrate cultural pride. When people moved to other parts of the world, their folk dances often moved with them and adapted to their new environments. The polka began in Bohemia (now known as the Czech Republic) and morphed into a new form when emigrants relocated to Mexico. The book stresses that many dances require years of training and practice, such as ballet, kabuki, Bharatanatyam, Khmer, and fan dancing. Clarke employs accessible language, incorporating onomatopoeia to highlight the sounds of the music and the calls of the dancers and exhorting readers to get out there and have fun dancing.
A fascinating worldwide tour. (photo credits) (Nonfiction. 7-10)Pub Date: April 25, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-38403-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A pivotal moment in a child’s life, at once stirring and authentically personal.
Before growing up to become a major figure in the civil rights movement, a boy finds a role model.
Buffing up a childhood tale told by her renowned father, Young Shelton describes how young Andrew saw scary men marching in his New Orleans neighborhood (“It sounded like they were yelling ‘Hi, Hitler!’ ”). In response to his questions, his father took him to see a newsreel of Jesse Owens (“a runner who looked like me”) triumphing in the 1936 Olympics. “Racism is a sickness,” his father tells him. “We’ve got to help folks like that.” How? “Well, you can start by just being the best person you can be,” his father replies. “It’s what you do that counts.” In James’ hazy chalk pastels, Andrew joins racially diverse playmates (including a White child with an Irish accent proudly displaying the nickel he got from his aunt as a bribe to stop playing with “those Colored boys”) in tag and other games, playing catch with his dad, sitting in the midst of a cheering crowd in the local theater’s segregated balcony, and finally visualizing himself pelting down a track alongside his new hero—“head up, back straight, eyes focused,” as a thematically repeated line has it, on the finish line. An afterword by Young Shelton explains that she retold this story, told to her many times growing up, drawing from conversations with Young and from her own research; family photos are also included. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A pivotal moment in a child’s life, at once stirring and authentically personal. (illustrator’s note) (Autobiographical picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-545-55465-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
Inspiration for nature-loving children.
If you’re a child who collects nature’s treasures, you’re in good company.
This cleverly conceived and appealingly executed title addresses young readers directly, connecting their noticing and collecting habits to those of others who continued to observe, collect, and organize in adulthood. Montgomery introduces a grandly diverse array of nine naturalists, researchers, and explorers from Maria Sibylla Merian, who studied butterflies in the 17th century, to Bonnie Lei, whose present-day research focuses on sea-life conservation. Three are people of color, and the majority are female. The young George Washington Carver collected seed pods; deep-sea explorer William Beebe collected birds’ eggs; and young Jane Goodall put worms under her pillow! Other profiles include Charles Darwin, tree-canopy explorer Margaret Lowman, herpetologist Diego Cisneros-Heredia, and fossil hunter Mary Anning. The vignettes from childhood are engaging, well paced, and smoothly told. Short introductions to the adult scientists follow, in a smaller font. In her author’s note, the writer introduces the concept of naturalist intelligence. Lechuga’s friendly illustrations feature the brown-skinned girl with Afro puffs and overflowing pockets shown on the cover as well as the scientists as children, then as adults, in appropriate times and places. The backmatter includes more about the grown-up scientists and the author’s own sensible “rules for collecting,” which involve respect for nature, the people she lives with, and herself (safety). The illustrator reminds readers that habits of observation are something she also shares with scientists.
Inspiration for nature-loving children. (field guides, selected bibliography) (Informational picture book. 7-10)Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-62354-122-4
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
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