An entertaining, lucid look at the judicial process.
An 1893 Supreme Court case established whether a tomato was a fruit or a vegetable.
In 1886, Jon Nix, “the produce king of New York,” thought he’d get rich selling tomatoes from Bermuda until a New York Custom House collector demanded a 10% vegetable tax when his goods arrived at the port. Nix argued that tomatoes were fruits (they have seeds and grow from flowers) and therefore weren’t taxable. The collector wasn’t convinced, and Nix had to pay, so he went to court, hoping to change the law—in particular, the Tariff Act of 1883, which taxed goods from other countries that attempted to compete with homegrown items. Metcalf humorously introduces the legal process, describing the proceedings as a “food fight”—a showdown between lawyers on “team vegetable” (the defendants) and “team fruit” (the plaintiffs). Evidence and rebuttals abound, drolly illustrated by Fotheringham in blotted line and color wash. Playful typefaces for onomatopoeia (“SQUISH!” “WHOMP!”) add emphasis as the major figures seek answers to vexing questions: “What makes edibles vegetable?” Do people eat tomatoes as a meal or a dessert? Metcalf overdoes the food-based puns but includes excellent backmatter to help young debaters learn to develop an argument.
An entertaining, lucid look at the judicial process. (information on the vocabulary used, author’s note, archival photographs, further facts about tomatoes, sources, picture credits) (Informational picture book. 7-10)Pub Date: Aug. 12, 2025
ISBN: 9781662680533
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Calkins Creek/Astra Books for Young Readers
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
A lighthearted recap of some of our oldest tales.
For her latest cartoon foray into ancient cultures, Williams concocts a brisk dash through Egyptian myth and history.
Drawing figures in traditional Egyptian style but with a more natural range of expressions and gestures, she constructs flat-planed scenes that range from small sequential strips to full-page images and even larger ones on double gatefolds. Her nine episodes begin with a creation myth, end with Cleopatra’s death and in between introduce a select set of major gods and Pharaohs. Large and small, each picture is decked with strings of hieroglyphic-like signs for atmosphere as well as side comments in dialogue balloons to go with the short, legible captions. Though she freely mixes legend and fact without distinguishing one from the other in the main going, a smaller strip running below provides a cat’s-eye view of the subject. The patterns of Egyptian daily life (“Cats are Egypt’s greatest wonder, followed by the river Nile”), how mummies were made (“Yes, we do cats, too!”), early technological advances and general cultural values receive tongue-in-cheek glosses. The colorful, briefly told stories provide nothing like a systematic overview but are easily enjoyed for themselves, and they may well leave young readers with a hankering to find out more about Isis and Horus, Zoser, Hatshepsut, Tutankhamen and the rest.
A lighthearted recap of some of our oldest tales. (map) (Picture book/folklore. 7-10)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5308-8
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
In a boyish three-day adventure, Teedie (Roosevelt) and Johnnie (Muir) dodge, if temporarily, the confines of more formal...
Theodore Roosevelt’s 1903 trip to the western parks included a backcountry camping trip—complete with snowstorm—with John Muir in the Yosemite Wilderness and informed the president’s subsequent advocacy for national parks and monuments.
In a boyish three-day adventure, Teedie (Roosevelt) and Johnnie (Muir) dodge, if temporarily, the confines of more formal surroundings to experience firsthand the glories of the mountains and ancient forests. (You can't ever quite take the boy out of the man, and Rosenstock's use of her subjects’ childhood names evokes a sense of Neverland ebullience, even as the grownup men decided the fate of the wilderness.) The narrative is intimate and yet conveys the importance of the encounter both as a magnificent getaway for the lively president and a chance for the brilliant environmentalist to tell the trees’ side of the story. Gerstein’s depiction of the exuberant president riding off with Muir is enchantingly comical and liberating. A lovely two-page spread turns the opening to a long vertical to show the two men in the Mariposa Grove, relatively small even on horseback, surrounded by the hush and grandeur of the giant sequoias, while in another double-page scene, after a photo of the two at Glacier Point, Muir lies on his back at the edge of the canyon, demonstrating to an attentive Roosevelt how the glacier carved the deep valley below. An author’s note explains that the dialogue is imagined and reconstructed from Muir’s writing as well as from other accounts of the meeting.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3710-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 8, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2011
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