Illustrated with a fine array of early mini-cameras, hollow-heeled shoes and cleverly disguised weapons displayed at Washington D.C.’s International Spy Museum, this breezy if disjointed tour sweeps from Hammurabi’s palace to Moscow’s Butyrka Prison. Along the way, it peeks at triumphs and milestones in the history of intelligence-gathering while introducing a host of spies, traitors, double and triple agents, spy rings, femme fatales, plots and ploys, all the way down to the recent revelation of the NSA’s Domestic Surveillance Program. Supposedly arranged by topic, it’s a hodge-podge of short passages, photo captions, side essays and glossaries—over-designed, under-edited and sans index, but perfect for random dipping. Coleman focuses on the human side of the story, so budding 007s may want to pair this with the more high-tech oriented likes of Richard Platt’s Eyewitness Spy (2000). (bibliography, illustration credits) (Nonfiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-8109-5756-6
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2006
Whirls of tiny, brightly dressed people’some with wings—fill Kleven’s kaleidoscopic portraits of sun-drenched Los Angeles neighborhoods and landmarks; the Los Angeles—based authors supply equally colorful accounts of the city’s growth, festivals, and citizens, using an appended chronology to squeeze in a few more anecdotes. As does Kathy Jakobsen’s My New York (1998), Jaskol and Lewis’s book captures a vivid sense of a major urban area’s bustle, diversity, and distinctive character; young Angelenos will get a hearty dose of civic pride, and children everywhere will find new details in the vibrant illustrations at every pass. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-10)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-525-46214-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
Koller (Bouncing on the Bed, p. 143, etc.) portrays a Narragansett nickommoh, or celebratory gathering, from which it is very likely the tradition of Thanksgiving was drawn. As explained in an exemplary note—brief, clear, interesting—at the end of the book, these gatherings occurred 13 times a year, once each lunar month. The harvest gathering is one of the larger gatherings: a great lodge was built, copious food was prepared, and music and dance extended deep into the night. Koller laces the text with a good selection of Narragansett words, found in the glossary (although there is no key to pronunciation, even for words such as Taqountikeeswush and Puttuckquapuonck). The text is written as a chanted prose poem, with much repetition, which can be both incantatory and hackneyed, as when “frost lies thick on the fields at dawn, and the winged ones pass overhead in great numbers.” Mostly the phrases are stirring—as are Sewall’s scratchboard evocations—and often inspirational—for this nickommoh puts to shame what has become known as the day before the launch of the holiday shopping season. (Picture book. 6-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-689-81094-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
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