A reminder that many appreciate you even if those in charge do not.
No girls allowed is a phrase Anne Innis Dagg has heard her whole life.
As a child, Dagg, a White Canadian, was told that a girl’s future was to be a good wife and mother. She could not play hockey with her brothers, and she was discouraged from studying science. When, as a young woman, she had saved up enough money to travel to Africa to study giraffes, her lifelong love, people from all over the globe told her they would not support her. Determined, Dagg left everything she knew to undertake a two-month journey to South Africa to document her beloved animals. Back in Canada, married and with her doctorate, Dagg couldn’t find a job as a full-time professor because men said she was unqualified and that married women should not work out of their homes. Dagg sued. She began writing about the inequality women faced, both in academia and in life in general. Over 50 years later, Dagg returned to Africa to help conservationists prevent the extinction of giraffes. The text is spare and straightforward, and each double-page spread features a footnote with further and explained facts and definitions. Several pages include letters to and from Dagg; unfortunately, nothing in the backmatter indicates whether these are real or imagined. Scenes of Africa emphasize the vast savannas that giraffes call home. Thisdale’s exquisite and detailed illustrations are so clear they almost seem like photographs. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A reminder that many appreciate you even if those in charge do not. (author's note, glossary, further reading) (Picture book/biography. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-55455-540-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Fitzhenry & Whiteside
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere.
This book is buzzing with trivia.
Follow a swarm of bees as they leave a beekeeper’s apiary in search of a new home. As the scout bees traverse the fields, readers are provided with a potpourri of facts and statements about bees. The information is scattered—much like the scout bees—and as a result, both the nominal plot and informational content are tissue-thin. There are some interesting facts throughout the book, but many pieces of trivia are too, well trivial, to prove useful. For example, as the bees travel, readers learn that “onion flowers are round and fluffy” and “fennel is a plant that is used in cooking.” Other facts are oversimplified and as a result are not accurate. For example, monofloral honey is defined as “made by bees who visit just one kind of flower” with no acknowledgment of the fact that bees may range widely, and swarm activity is described as a springtime event, when it can also occur in summer and early fall. The information in the book, such as species identification and measurement units, is directed toward British readers. The flat, thin-lined artwork does little to enhance the story, but an “I spy” game challenging readers to find a specific bee throughout is amusing.
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere. (Informational picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-500-65265-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Though a bit loose around the edges, a charmer nevertheless.
Tales of a fourth grade ne’er-do-well.
It seems that young Jordan is stuck in a never-ending string of bad luck. Sure, no one’s perfect (except maybe goody-two-shoes William Feranek), but Jordan can’t seem to keep his attention focused on the task at hand. Try as he may, things always go a bit sideways, much to his educators’ chagrin. But Jordan promises himself that fourth grade will be different. As the year unfolds, it does prove to be different, but in a way Jordan couldn’t possibly have predicted. This humorous memoir perfectly captures the square-peg-in-a-round-hole feeling many kids feel and effectively heightens that feeling with comic situations and a splendid villain. Jordan’s teacher, Mrs. Fisher, makes an excellent foil, and the book’s 1970s setting allows for her cruelty to go beyond anything most contemporary readers could expect. Unfortunately, the story begins to run out of steam once Mrs. Fisher exits. Recollections spiral, losing their focus and leading to a more “then this happened” and less cause-and-effect structure. The anecdotes are all amusing and Jordan is an endearing protagonist, but the book comes dangerously close to wearing out its welcome with sheer repetitiveness. Thankfully, it ends on a high note, one pleasant and hopeful enough that readers will overlook some of the shabbier qualities. Jordan is White and Jewish while there is some diversity among his classmates; Mrs. Fisher is White.
Though a bit loose around the edges, a charmer nevertheless. (Memoir. 8-12)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-64723-5
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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