A small but feel-good historical anecdote.
The true story of an elaborate clock case that a young Mexican American resident of San Antonio made for Franklin Delano Roosevelt as a thank-you gift.
A gingerbread fantasy crafted from 156 pieces of sugar pine crates saved from New Deal food deliveries, the 40-inch-high case sits today in the FDR Presidential Library. It was made in 1937 in recognition of help received during the Great Depression, and here Ruiz-Flores spins news stories and interviews with surviving family members into an affecting account of how young Ernestine Guerrero, a carpenter’s daughter and helper, taught herself woodworking techniques and then painstakingly cut and assembled the case. Neither the author nor López Real seems to know much about carpentry—Guerrero would have needed more than just a coping saw and a chisel, the only tools she’s actually shown using, to carve many of the work’s “interlaced decorative designs”—but in the pictures her serious figure exudes determination, and the finished project is both magnificent and (as a photo at the end shows) accurately rendered. The letter to the president that she composed to go with the gift, which is excerpted in the narrative and shown in full at the end, is likewise marvelous: “This is the best I have ever done in my life. I know that you have many pretty things, but please accept and keep this piece of work from a poor girl that doesn’t have anything….” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A small but feel-good historical anecdote. (author’s note, glossary, source notes, selected bibliography) (Informational picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781728460437
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Millbrook/Lerner
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses.
An NBA star pays tribute to the influence of his grandfather.
In the same vein as his Long Shot (2009), illustrated by Frank Morrison, this latest from Paul prioritizes values and character: “My granddad Papa Chilly had dreams that came true,” he writes, “so maybe if I listen and watch him, / mine will too.” So it is that the wide-eyed Black child in the simply drawn illustrations rises early to get to the playground hoops before anyone else, watches his elder working hard and respecting others, hears him cheering along with the rest of the family from the stands during games, and recalls in a prose afterword that his grandfather wasn’t one to lecture but taught by example. Paul mentions in both the text and the backmatter that Papa Chilly was the first African American to own a service station in North Carolina (his presumed dream) but not that he was killed in a robbery, which has the effect of keeping the overall tone positive and the instructional content one-dimensional. Figures in the pictures are mostly dark-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-81003-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
A unique angle on a watershed moment in the civil rights era.
The New Orleans school child who famously broke the color line in 1960 while surrounded by federal marshals describes the early days of her experience from a 6-year-old’s perspective.
Bridges told her tale to younger children in 2009’s Ruby Bridges Goes to School, but here the sensibility is more personal, and the sometimes-shocking historical photos have been replaced by uplifting painted scenes. “I didn’t find out what being ‘the first’ really meant until the day I arrived at this new school,” she writes. Unfrightened by the crowd of “screaming white people” that greets her at the school’s door (she thinks it’s like Mardi Gras) but surprised to find herself the only child in her classroom, and even the entire building, she gradually realizes the significance of her act as (in Smith’s illustration) she compares a small personal photo to the all-White class photos posted on a bulletin board and sees the difference. As she reflects on her new understanding, symbolic scenes first depict other dark-skinned children marching into classes in her wake to friendly greetings from lighter-skinned classmates (“School is just school,” she sensibly concludes, “and kids are just kids”) and finally an image of the bright-eyed icon posed next to a soaring bridge of reconciliation. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A unique angle on a watershed moment in the civil rights era. (author and illustrator notes, glossary) (Autobiographical picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-75388-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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