An informative biography for an older picture-book audience.
The life story of a famous mystery writer.
Smoke wreathes a pipe-smoking silhouette, a magnifying glass and violin completing the opening mise-en-scène. Initial questions ask readers, “What if you wrote a story about a detective, and…the whole world loved [him]?” Then, as Bailey launches into an account of the author’s life, a young Arthur Conan Doyle sits on the floor of his Edinburgh home while his mother tells him and his unnamed sister fantastical stories. Doyle’s life includes many twists and turns. First he’s a poor medical student sacrificing a meal to buy books. Next, he has multiple adventures on the high seas and focuses on his writing while failing to establish a practice as an eye doctor. Each stage of his life and literary career is explained in a matter-of-fact tone, accessible though slightly dry. Long blocks of text on almost every page would make this challenging to read aloud, but the precise, detailed watercolor, pencil, and digital illustrations provide a lot to pore over. In addition to addressing Doyle’s eventual resentment for Sherlock Holmes, the story doesn’t shy away from describing Doyle’s father’s alcoholism, and in-depth backmatter provides more information about other compelling aspects of his life, like his interest in spiritualism and his defense of a “young Anglo-Indian lawyer victimized because of his race.” Most characters present as White. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An informative biography for an older picture-book audience. (sources) (Picture-book biography. 6-9)Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-7352-6925-5
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A succinct, edifying read, but don’t buy it for the pictures.
Abraham Lincoln’s ascent to the presidency is recounted in a fluid, easy-to-read biography for early readers.
Simple, direct sentences stress Lincoln’s humble upbringing, his honesty, and his devotion to acting with moral conviction. “Lincoln didn’t seem like a man who would be president one day. But he studied hard and became a lawyer. He cared about people and about justice.” Slavery and Lincoln’s signature achievement of emancipation are explained in broad yet defined, understandable analogies. “At that time, in the South, the law let white people own black people, just as they owned a house or a horse.” Readers are clearly given the president’s perspective through some documented memorable quotes from his own letters. “Lincoln did not like slavery. ‘If slavery is not wrong,’ he wrote to a friend ‘nothing is wrong.’ ” (The text does not clarify that this letter was written in 1865 and not before he ascended to the presidency, as implied by the book.) As the war goes on and Lincoln makes his decision to free the slaves in the “Southern states”—“a bold move”—Lincoln’s own words describe his thinking: “ ‘If my name ever goes into history,’ Lincoln said, ‘it will be for this act.’ ” A very basic timeline, which mentions the assassination unaddressed in the text, is followed by backmatter providing photographs, slightly more detailed historical information, and legacy. It’s a pity that the text is accompanied by unremarkable, rudimentary opaque paintings.
A succinct, edifying read, but don’t buy it for the pictures. (Informational early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: June 20, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-243256-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2017
The legions of fans who over the years have enjoyed dePaola’s autobiographical picture books will welcome this longer gathering of reminiscences. Writing in an authentically childlike voice, he describes watching the new house his father was building go up despite a succession of disasters, from a brush fire to the hurricane of 1938. Meanwhile, he also introduces family, friends, and neighbors, adds Nana Fall River to his already well-known Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs, remembers his first day of school (“ ‘ When do we learn to read?’ I asked. ‘Oh, we don’t learn how to read in kindergarten. We learn to read next year, in first grade.’ ‘Fine,’ I said. ‘I’ll be back next year.’ And I walked right out of school.”), recalls holidays, and explains his indignation when the plot of Disney’s “Snow White” doesn’t match the story he knows. Generously illustrated with vignettes and larger scenes, this cheery, well-knit narrative proves that an old dog can learn new tricks, and learn them surpassingly well. (Autobiography. 7-9)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-399-23246-X
Page Count: 58
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1999
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