An alphabetic celebration of the various sights and attractions of Washington, D.C., falls victim to a fuzzy definition of its audience. Melmed (Fright Night Flight, p. 1229, etc.) tidily organizes the capital from A (Air and Space Museum) to Z (National Zoo), describing each attraction in rhyming couplets and further explicating specific features in teeny prose print. Thus F is accompanied by both “Who searches for the Ten Most Wanted / And faces terrorists, undaunted? / Who’ll ambush the most clever spy / or solve a crime? The FBI!” and “Forensic scientists at the FBI can enlarge fingerprints found at a crime scene and search through their computer data banks to find a match.” Lessac’s (On the Same Day in March, not reviewed, etc.) cheery folk-arty illustrations present thumbnail details with as much energy as broad landscapes teeming with happy multiethnic throngs. The illustrations work well with the prose explications, and the level of detail provided by both will delight older children who can get past the young-seeming format and who have the background necessary to provide historical/civic context. But the verse, which never rises above the level of doggerel, is way out of sync with the prose. It insults the readers who would be captivated by the prose and frequently fails to illuminate sufficiently its subjects for younger children. An attractive package that tries to be too many things to too many people. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-688-17561-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2002
A gentle retelling of the Passover story, first published in 1965 with pictures by Symeon Shimin, has been newly illustrated by Weihs. She enhances and extends the text by showing Jews of many ethnic groups and races, in various family configurations, in the US and abroad. The oil paintings, in a palette of subdued lilac, sand, hazy green, and aqua, have a dreamy quality, eliminating precise details in favor of mood. That may be why readers unfamiliar with aspects of the holiday will find some details puzzling—the proclamation, ``A large dish called the Seder Plate is filled with foods that remind us of the time in Egypt,'' appears on one page, with explanations of the food and what each one symbolizes appearing several pages later. Simon concludes with recipes and some suggestions for creating Passover place cards. Those looking for a general overview of Passover's rituals and background will find this charmingly low-key. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1997
ISBN: 0-06-027062-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PLB 0-688-10259-X Taking a big step up from its glamorous, superficial predecessor, African Beginnings (p. 111), this volume looks at the history of slavery in Europe and Africa, plus the growth and decline of the New World slave trade, with a narrative that is closely based on contemporary accounts and full-color and black-and-white illustrations from a variety of sources. After creating a historical background for the Age of Exploration, the authors explain how the slave trade came to dominate commerce with Africa, describe in harsh detail the treatment of captives before and during the infamous Middle Passage, take up the topic of slave mutinies (including the Amistad revolt), and end with the slaves’ arrival in port. Cooper’s emotionally intense, soft focus scenes of agonized or downcast captives are interspersed with crisply reproduced, mostly well-chosen art from Ancient Egypt to a mid-20th century mural; back matter includes a detailed chronology to 1808, when the trade was outlawed in the US, and a well-founded bibliography. A strong summary of an epic historical tragedy that is both sobering and illuminating. (index) (Picture book/nonfiction. 9-12) . . . —Hopkinson, Deborah A BAND OF ANGELS Illus. by Ra£l Col¢n Atheneum (40 pp.) $16.00 Jan. 1, 1999 ISBN: 0-679-81062-8 This fictionalized version of the formation of Fisk University’s Jubilee Singers should be packaged with handkerchiefs, because by the end there won’t be a dry eye among readers. Taking to the road in the early 1870s in a last-ditch effort to keep their college open, an African-American chorus plays to nearly empty houses as long as they sing “the popular white songs”; when, led by their pianist Ella Sheppard, they switch to then seldom-heard spirituals and slaves’ songs, they go on to international fame. In Col¢n’s stylized, combed paintings, a golden light shines down on nine solemn, dignified people singing their hearts out; it’s a portrayal that is so convincing that readers will almost hear the music. Hopkinson (Birdie’s Lighthouse, 1997, etc.) frames her moving, inspirational account as a modern family story shared by Sheppard’s descendants one of whom is a librarian at Fisk today. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-688-10258-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1998
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