Though the alphabetic conceit doesn’t work as well for an entire state as it did for their tours of Washington, D.C. (2003), and New York City (2005), Melmed and Lessac gamely present a high-spots roundup of history, prehistory, places and annual events to give students and prospective visitors at least a taste of Texas. From “Alamo” to “Zilker Park,” “Fiestas Patrias” to the “Juneteenth Festival,” the author provides at each stop an introductory bit of doggerel and a handful of random facts—the latter scattered over broad landscapes or urban scenes painted in Lessac’s characteristic primitive style. Totally unsystematic, seldom better than superficial and sometimes trivial or jejune (A is for Alamo: “Santa Anna was a good soldier but a cruel, hated commander”), this joins the three (at least) other Texas ABCs that are currently available in having little to offer beyond regional interest. A very simple keyed map is included. (Informational picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-06-114283-3
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Collins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Strong rhythms and occasional full or partial rhymes give this account of P.T. Barnum’s 1884 elephant parade across the newly opened Brooklyn Bridge an incantatory tone. Catching a whiff of public concern about the new bridge’s sturdiness, Barnum seizes the moment: “’I will stage an event / that will calm every fear, erase every worry, / about that remarkable bridge. / My display will amuse, inform / and astound some. / Or else my name isn’t Barnum!’” Using a rich palette of glowing golds and browns, Roca imbues the pachyderms with a calm solidity, sending them ambling past equally solid-looking buildings and over a truly monumental bridge—which soars over a striped Big Top tent in the final scene. A stately rendition of the episode, less exuberant, but also less fictionalized, than Phil Bildner’s Twenty-One Elephants (2004), illustrated by LeUyen Pham. (author’s note, resource list) (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2005
ISBN: 0-618-44887-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2005
A clear, understandable account of a young Jewish boy's terrible experiences during the World War II. In 1944, when Eliezer Wiesel was 15, his town of Sighet (then part of Hungary) was invaded by the German army, who forced all the Jews to live in ghettos. From there, the Wiesel family were sent to concentration camps where, with the exception of Elie, they all were killed. Without fanfare but with dignified emphasis, author Pariser describes the cruelties and horrors of Wiesel's life as an inmate, as well as his subsequent liberation by Allied forces and his future vocation as a journalist, author, speaker, and political activist. Photographs from the WW II period establish a mood of somber witness. With its clear, narrative style, useful bibliography, chronology, and index, this is an excellent introduction to what is undeniably one of the darkest periods in modern history. (Nonfiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: Aug. 15, 1994
ISBN: 1-56294-419-3
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Millbrook
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1994
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