A surface-level introduction.
The story of the flag that inspired the national anthem, from its commissioning through its construction by Mary Pickersgill to its current place at the Smithsonian.
Though the subtitle and cover feature Mary Pickersgill, Hartland’s book is really about the flag itself. The story covers how America came to be at war, how Pickersgill’s shop came to sew the flag, how Francis Scott Key wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and how the flag was preserved and is currently displayed. Hartland’s gouache, folk-art–style illustrations provide a nice amount of detail, with much for readers to linger over and admire, though the playful pennant advertising crabcakes is likely anachronistic. Working to make the book accessible to readers, Hartland takes great care to explain why flags were so important in a time before telephones, but she fails to provide context as to why sewing a large flag would take such an effort. Though she is unnamed, close readers of history will appreciate the inclusion of the white woman’s oft-excluded indentured black servant, Grace Wisher. (Pickersgill’s history as a slave owner goes unmentioned, however). Perhaps the most fascinating part of the book is what actually happened to the flag after the war, and a lovely two-page spread outlines the process in a series of paneled illustrations.
A surface-level introduction. (author’s note, source notes, bibliography, further reading, timeline.) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 21, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5344-0233-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Sad indeed, but a little bland—though less traumatic in the telling than the stories of Jumbo or the Faithful Elephants...
In this true tale of an elephant that crushed a keeper after peacefully giving zoo visitors rides for nearly 40 years, Fenton tones the drama down to near nonexistence (for better or worse).
Arriving at the Melbourne Zoo as a youngster, Queenie began giving rides in 1905. She became such a fixture that children wrote her letters, her birthday was celebrated each year, and she even marched in the Centenary Floral Parade in 1934. After creating an endearing but not anthropomorphic portrait of her pachyderm protagonist, the author, warning that “Queenie’s story has a sad ending,” goes on to explain that even though the 1944 killing might have been just an accident, “the gentle Indian elephant was put to sleep.” Furthermore, she was never replaced; the elephants in today’s zoo occupy a habitat where they can “do just what elephants like to do.” Neither the incident itself nor Queenie’s end are specifically described or depicted, and Gouldthorpe’s illustrations, which look like old, hand-tinted photographs, put a nostalgic distance between viewers and events.
Sad indeed, but a little bland—though less traumatic in the telling than the stories of Jumbo or the Faithful Elephants (1988) killed at the Tokyo Zoo. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: June 11, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6375-9
Page Count: 25
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: April 30, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2013
Solid, if not revolutionary.
Albee and Ko take their shot at an early-reader biography about Alexander Hamilton.
Emergent readers (and their caregivers) familiar with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hit musical Hamilton will be rewarded with what amounts to an illustrated highlights reel of the founding father’s life. Albee opens in medias res by describing Hamilton as “a soldier, a lawyer, and a financial wizard,” before the spare text quickly brings readers to Hamilton’s Caribbean childhood, noting his father’s abandonment, his mother’s death, and his determined rise from poverty. He’s presented as a trusted adviser to George Washington and rival to Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, with Ko’s accompanying digital art depicting him with a smiling man on horseback (Washington), while on the facing page, the two other men scowl. A later spread notes major differences between Jefferson and Hamilton, including acknowledgment that Jefferson enslaved people while “Hamilton was against slavery,” but Washington’s slave-owner status isn’t named, nor is the American Revolution’s impact on Indigenous peoples. Personal milestones, such as marriage to Eliza Schuyler, are noted alongside references to his involvement in the war and his work with the nascent American government. While his death occurs on the page, strategies to keep the text within the comprehension of its audience risk undermining other historical content by omitting such terms as “revolution” and the Federalist Papers (though they do appear in backmatter).
Solid, if not revolutionary. (Early reader/biography. 6-8)Pub Date: May 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-243291-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2018
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