An inspiring and definitely underrecognized role model.
A young Black woman revolutionizes warship design for the U.S. Navy.
Swanson skips most of her subject’s private life to focus on her engineering career, which was inspired by a childhood tour of a WWII submarine in 1943 and culminated in the first naval ship to be entirely designed by computer. Taking to heart her mother’s lesson that she could “learn anything, do anything, and be anything,” Montague defied rules and conventions to take shop in high school, advance from clerk typist for the Navy to ad hoc operator of the early UNIVAC computer, finally earn reluctant admission to the Naval Ship Engineering Center, and head a software-development team so underfunded that she had to recruit her mother and 3-year-old son to ensure that she met her deadline. Montague went on to a long and distinguished career. As she told the author in 2017 (she died in 2018, which goes unmentioned among the closing tally of later honors and awards), she wanted to be remembered for her achievements, not as the first woman, nor the first Black woman, but as the first person to create what she did. As she proceeds from pigtails to gray-haired eminence in Jamison’s illustrations, Montague’s lively, intelligent gaze shines out. Aside from one group portrait of her racially diverse design team, she poses either with other brown-skinned female colleagues or with dismissive, oblivious, and/or astonished white men.
An inspiring and definitely underrecognized role model. (author’s note, source list) (Picture-book biography. 7-9)Pub Date: Nov. 19, 2024
ISBN: 9780316565486
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An in-depth and visually pleasing look at one of the most fundamental forces in the universe.
An introduction to gravity.
The book opens with the most iconic demonstration of gravity, an apple falling. Throughout, Herz tackles both huge concepts—how gravity compresses atoms to form stars and how black holes pull all kinds of matter toward them—and more concrete ones: how gravity allows you to jump up and then come back down to the ground. Gravity narrates in spare yet lyrical verse, explaining how it creates planets and compresses atoms and comparing itself to a hug. “My embrace is tight enough that you don’t float like a balloon, but loose enough that you can run and leap and play.” Gravity personifies itself at times: “I am stubborn—the bigger things are, the harder I pull.” Beautiful illustrations depict swirling planets and black holes alongside racially diverse children playing, running, and jumping, all thanks to gravity. Thorough backmatter discusses how Sir Isaac Newton discovered gravity and explains Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. While at times Herz’s explanations may be a bit too technical for some readers, burgeoning scientists will be drawn in.
An in-depth and visually pleasing look at one of the most fundamental forces in the universe. (Informational picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: April 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781668936849
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tilbury House
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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
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