Commemorating the 400th anniversary of Jamestown’s founding, Fritz’s latest venture into America’s past sketches the career of a teenaged cabin boy who joined the beleaguered colony at the beginning of 1608. He spent enough time in Powhatan’s settlement of Werowocomoco to learn the language, became an interpreter who survived the massacres and famines, then later went on to form an alliance with the neighboring Accawmackes and to settle on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. Fritz notes that so little is known of Savage’s life that her account should be regarded as fiction. But she fills in the large gaps in the story with so many verified historical details of Jamestown’s tumultuous early years that readers will come away with an accurate picture of events—and also likely shaking their heads in wonder that the colony wasn’t utterly wiped out on numerous occasions. Though Comport’s low-angle illustrations have a distractingly flat, over-painted look, and the closing bibliography is composed of adult sources and hard-to-find journal articles, the narrative here is easily vivid enough to compensate. (Fictionalized nonfiction. 8-11)
Pub Date: April 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-399-24644-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2007
The author of Cod’s Tale (2001) again demonstrates a dab hand at recasting his adult work for a younger audience. Here the topic is salt, “the only rock eaten by human beings,” and, as he engrossingly demonstrates, “the object of wars and revolutions” throughout recorded history and before. Between his opening disquisition on its chemical composition and a closing timeline, he explores salt’s sources and methods of extraction, its worldwide economic influences from prehistoric domestication of animals to Gandhi’s Salt March, its many uses as a preservative and industrial product, its culinary and even, as the source for words like “salary” and “salad,” its linguistic history. Along with lucid maps and diagrams, Schindler supplies detailed, sometimes fanciful scenes to go along, finishing with a view of young folk chowing down on orders of French fries as ghostly figures from history look on. Some of Kurlansky’s claims are exaggerated (the Erie and other canals were built to transport more than just salt, for instance), and there are no leads to further resources, but this salutary (in more ways than one) micro-history will have young readers lifting their shakers in tribute. (Picture book/nonfiction. 8-10)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-399-23998-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2006
paper 1-57505-370-5 In this valuable addition to the On My Own Biography series of easy readers, Lowery (Georgia O’Keeffe, 1996, etc.) renders an intriguing and lucid portrait of the man often referred to as the most celebrated artist of the 20th century. The book begins with young Picasso puzzling over math equations. Finding math difficult, he came up with an inventive alternative, swirling and bending numbers on the page until they became fanciful creations. As a boy, Picasso was often sent to a “cell” as punishment for his lack of academic focus, but there he found the long hours nothing but pleasant, doing just what he loved best, “drawing, drawing, drawing.” This book takes readers on a journey through the highlights of Picasso’s life, visiting his Blue Period, his Rose Period and lingering over cubism. Lowery also makes clear Picasso’s mercurial and tempestuous nature, describing his swings from flamboyant rage to ecstatic joy. She aptly demonstrates how Picasso’s art became an expression of his character and his character an extension of his art. In pleasing textures of oil on canvas and warm hues, Porter’s accompanying illustrations quite nicely echo the art of its subject. (photos, chronology) (Biography. 8-11)
Pub Date: Nov. 30, 1999
ISBN: 1-57505-331-4
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Carolrhoda
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1999
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