The heroic events that began the Communist era in China are recounted by a favorite author (herself born in China) who has written a distinguished list of books on American history for children. Basing her anecdotal saga on interviews with a dozen of the remaining 600 survivors of the March as well as on books included in an extensive bibliography, Fritz uses authentic details to make the hardships and triumphs immediate and personal: a bridge anchored by an instant innovation born of necessity—bamboo baskets weighted with stones; Mao, too sick to walk, writing a letter for a homesick, illiterate soldier; a whole army disguised as the enemy Nationalists, marching along one side of a river while the real Nationalists kept pace on the other. Fritz makes vivid the poverty and despair provoked by grasping landlords that gave this army, largely made up of peasants, such dogged perseverance. The epic crossing of the high mountains on the borders of Tibet and the treacherous, trackless "Grasslands" make an inspirational story worthy of the place it still holds in the Chinese imagination. The account concludes with a brief summary of subsequent history: the alliance with the Nationalists to drive out the Japanese, the postwar accession to power and the successes of the Communist regime, the tragedy of the Cultural Revolution. This vivid account should go a long way towards making a radically different, vitally important country more comprehensive to American children; it belongs in every library.
Pub Date: Feb. 29, 1988
ISBN: 0399215123
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1988
Paulsen recalls personal experiences that he incorporated into Hatchet (1987) and its three sequels, from savage attacks by moose and mosquitoes to watching helplessly as a heart-attack victim dies. As usual, his real adventures are every bit as vivid and hair-raising as those in his fiction, and he relates them with relish—discoursing on “The Fine Art of Wilderness Nutrition,” for instance: “Something that you would never consider eating, something completely repulsive and ugly and disgusting, something so gross it would make you vomit just looking at it, becomes absolutely delicious if you’re starving.” Specific examples follow, to prove that he knows whereof he writes. The author adds incidents from his Iditarod races, describes how he made, then learned to hunt with, bow and arrow, then closes with methods of cooking outdoors sans pots or pans. It’s a patchwork, but an entertaining one, and as likely to win him new fans as to answer questions from his old ones. (Autobiography. 10-13)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-385-32650-5
Page Count: 150
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2000
An expertly crafted rendition and a welcome invitation to younger readers to immerse themselves in the ancient past.
“Sing to me, O Muse, of the rage of Achilles”: a rousing graphic rendition of Homer’s great epic.
It’s a blood-soaked poem of primeval war, one ostensibly fought over a certain daughter of Zeus who turned the wrong head—“Or possibly an apple, or a lot of gold, or control of trade routes”—that brought vast armies to the plains of Troy. In a fight personified by two heroes, Trojan Hector and Greek Achilles, there’s more than a little graphic violence here—but nothing other than what Homer himself described, as when Achilles’ spear finds Hector’s neck, followed by Achilles’ intemperate curse: “Your corpse goes to the dogs.” That’s not very sporting, and of course Achilles gets his comeuppance. Hinds allows that his version is not complete, but all the best bits are there, and he provides some helpful interpretive hints—identifying the principal helmeted Greek and Trojan warriors with subtle alphabetical designs on their breastplates, for instance. The best graphic panels are the ones that show the war’s vastness, with a two-page spread of those famed thousand ships crossing the Hellespont, another panel showing the Greek army spilling out onto the plain, “like the great flock of migrating birds that take wing in the meadows by the stream of Caÿster—as numerous as the leaves of a forest.” An author’s note and page-by-page notes provide further context.
An expertly crafted rendition and a welcome invitation to younger readers to immerse themselves in the ancient past. (map, bibliography) (Graphic adaptation. 10-adult)Pub Date: March 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-7636-8113-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
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