Though a bit scrubbed, Rivera’s account offers engaging insight into the thrills and trials of getting the last out of the...
Baseball’s all-time save leader tells his story.
With the assistance of seasoned sportswriter Coffey and veteran’s children’s author Corbett, Rivera shares with young readers the remarkable tale of how a gangly Panamanian fisherman came to be one of the most famous pitchers in baseball history. Having grown up in a two-room house with no phone and dropped out of high school in the ninth grade, this humble fisherman’s son lacked his own glove and cleats when the Yankees signed him in 1990, at age 20, to be a pitcher. What Rivera exhibited at his audition for the Yankees and would be known for throughout his nearly 20-year career was not a dazzling variety of pitches but steely control and reserve in pressure situations. The children’s edition of this straight-laced family man’s life focuses on reminiscences of playing in the minor leagues, the World Series and the hardship of life on the road. It pares down some of the adult version’s (2014) more extended comments on other players’ conduct and steroid usage, as well as some of the proselytizing from the devout closer. His voice, though filtered through two co-authors, is endearing and often funny.
Though a bit scrubbed, Rivera’s account offers engaging insight into the thrills and trials of getting the last out of the season. (photos, “Notes from Mo,” glossary) (Memoir. 10-16)Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-316-40480-8
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2014
A breezy, bustling bucketful of courageous acts and eye-popping feats.
Why should grown-ups get all the historical, scientific, athletic, cinematic, and artistic glory?
Choosing exemplars from both past and present, Mitchell includes but goes well beyond Alexander the Great, Anne Frank, and like usual suspects to introduce a host of lesser-known luminaries. These include Shapur II, who was formally crowned king of Persia before he was born, Indian dancer/professional architect Sheila Sri Prakash, transgender spokesperson Jazz Jennings, inventor Param Jaggi, and an international host of other teen or preteen activists and prodigies. The individual portraits range from one paragraph to several pages in length, and they are interspersed with group tributes to, for instance, the Nazi-resisting “Swingkinder,” the striking New York City newsboys, and the marchers of the Birmingham Children’s Crusade. Mitchell even offers would-be villains a role model in Elagabalus, “boy emperor of Rome,” though she notes that he, at least, came to an awful end: “Then, then! They dumped his remains in the Tiber River, to be nommed by fish for all eternity.” The entries are arranged in no evident order, and though the backmatter includes multiple booklists, a personality quiz, a glossary, and even a quick Braille primer (with Braille jokes to decode), there is no index. Still, for readers whose fires need lighting, there’s motivational kindling on nearly every page.
A breezy, bustling bucketful of courageous acts and eye-popping feats. (finished illustrations not seen) (Collective biography. 10-13)Pub Date: May 10, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-14-751813-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Puffin
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2015
Hot on the heels of the well-received Leonardo da Vinci (2005) comes another agreeably chatty entry in the Giants of Science series. Here the pioneering physicist is revealed as undeniably brilliant, but also cantankerous, mean-spirited, paranoid and possibly depressive. Newton’s youth and annus mirabilis receive respectful treatment, the solitude enforced by family estrangement and then the plague seen as critical to the development of his thoughtful, methodical approach. His subsequent squabbles with the rest of the scientific community—he refrained from publishing one treatise until his rival was dead—further support the image of Newton as a scientific lone wolf. Krull’s colloquial treatment sketches Newton’s advances in clearly understandable terms without bogging the text down with detailed explanations. A final chapter on “His Impact” places him squarely in the pantheon of great thinkers, arguing that both his insistence on the scientific method and his theories of physics have informed all subsequent scientific thought. A bibliography, web site and index round out the volume; the lack of detail on the use of sources is regrettable in an otherwise solid offering for middle-grade students. (Biography. 10-14)
Pub Date: April 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-670-05921-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2006
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