If Gadot is less of a heroine than the character she portrays, this book may convince readers she’s close enough.
Some authors would find it a challenge to write an entire book about an actress who’s played only one really big role, but Sherman makes a case that Gal Gadot has spent her whole life preparing to play Wonder Woman.
Gadot’s parents taught her to be confident. When she was 3, she sneaked into their rooftop party, late at night, and when no one paid attention to her, she started spraying the guests with water. At 20, she trained soldiers in the Israeli military. And when she became Miss Israel, as a teenager, she felt uncomfortable with the role and often refused to wear the makeup and gowns required of a Miss Universe contestant, showing up at many events in casual outfits. If these details aren’t genuinely heroic, the book frames them to sound like an origin story. It makes her sound assured and rebellious, two of the main requirements for a superheroine. But when the biography isn’t talking about Wonder Woman, it sometimes feels padded. It indulges in plot summaries of some of the movies she’s appeared in, and there’s a description of the hotel she ran with her husband that reads like promotional copy: “Guests appreciate the quiet privacy as well as the views of the nearby Mediterranean Sea.” But there is a fair amount of information about her audition for the role of Wonder Woman, which is what kids really want.
If Gadot is less of a heroine than the character she portrays, this book may convince readers she’s close enough. (Biography. 6-12)Pub Date: April 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5415-2358-6
Page Count: 52
Publisher: Millbrook/Lerner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
A celebration of progressive Judaism and an inclusive primer on Jews making a difference in the world.
This wide-ranging collection of short biographies highlights 36 Jewish figures from around the globe and across centuries.
Explicitly pushing back against homogenous depictions of Jewish people, the authors demonstrate the ethnic, racial, and gender diversity of Jews. Each spread includes a brief biography paired with a stylized portrait reminiscent of those in Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo’s Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls (2016). A pull quote or sidebar accompanies each subject; sidebars include “Highlighting Jewish Paralympic Athletes,” “Jewish Stringed Music,” and “Ethiopian Jews in Israel.” Kleinrock and Pritchard’s roster of subjects makes a compelling case for the vastness and variety of Jewish experience—from a contemporary Ethiopian American teen to a 16th-century Portuguese philanthropist—while still allowing them to acknowledge better-known figures. The entry on Raquel Montoya-Lewis, an associate justice of the Washington Supreme Court and an enrolled member of the Pueblo Isleta Indian tribe, discusses her mission to reimagine criminal justice for Indigenous people; the sidebar name-checks Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan. The bios are organized around themes of Jewish principles such as Pikuach Nefesh (translated from the Hebrew as “to save a life”) and Adam Yachid (translated as the “unique value of every person”); each section includes an introduction to an organization that centers diverse Jewish experiences.
A celebration of progressive Judaism and an inclusive primer on Jews making a difference in the world. (resources) (Nonfiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2024
ISBN: 9780063285712
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses.
An NBA star pays tribute to the influence of his grandfather.
In the same vein as his Long Shot (2009), illustrated by Frank Morrison, this latest from Paul prioritizes values and character: “My granddad Papa Chilly had dreams that came true,” he writes, “so maybe if I listen and watch him, / mine will too.” So it is that the wide-eyed Black child in the simply drawn illustrations rises early to get to the playground hoops before anyone else, watches his elder working hard and respecting others, hears him cheering along with the rest of the family from the stands during games, and recalls in a prose afterword that his grandfather wasn’t one to lecture but taught by example. Paul mentions in both the text and the backmatter that Papa Chilly was the first African American to own a service station in North Carolina (his presumed dream) but not that he was killed in a robbery, which has the effect of keeping the overall tone positive and the instructional content one-dimensional. Figures in the pictures are mostly dark-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-81003-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
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