A captivating sports memoir that puts social justice at the forefront.
Soccer star Rapinoe commands attention both on and off the field.
In this memoir adapted for young readers, Rapinoe reflects on facing adversity and discovering what she’s made of over the course of her illustrious career. Rapinoe and her twin sister began playing soccer as children, joining a competitive boys’ team since there was no girls’ option in their small California town. Recognizing their potential, Rapinoe’s parents supported the girls through long drives, early mornings, and financial sacrifice. After the twins earned full soccer scholarships to the University of Portland, Rapinoe found new opportunities at the national and international levels and quickly made a name for herself. She discusses her growing understanding of her sexuality and racial politics and how this awareness led to her using her celebrity to champion causes from marriage equality to gender-based pay inequality in professional soccer. Rapinoe gained notoriety for kneeling during the national anthem, in alignment with her strong belief that White people have a responsibility to draw attention to systemic racism. Backlash against her activism has dogged her career, but Rapinoe challenges readers to use their voices to speak up for what they believe in, emphasizing that issues, just like people’s lives, are interconnected. Soccer fans will appreciate the game details and photos, from family snaps to moments from iconic matches. However, even the nonsporty will find much to appreciate in this inspiring and engagingly written book.
A captivating sports memoir that puts social justice at the forefront. (Nonfiction. 11-15)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-20341-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
The life of Manjiro Nakahama, also known as John Mung, makes an amazing story: shipwrecked as a young fisherman for months on a remote island, rescued by an American whaler, he became the first Japanese resident of the US. Then, after further adventures at sea and in the California gold fields, he returned to Japan where his first-hand knowledge of America and its people earned him a central role in the modernization of his country after its centuries of peaceful isolation had ended. Expanding a passage from her Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun (1985, Newbery Honor), Blumberg not only delivers an absorbing tale of severe hardships and startling accomplishments, but also takes side excursions to give readers vivid pictures of life in mid-19th-century Japan, aboard a whaler, and amidst the California Gold Rush. The illustrations, a generous mix of contemporary photos and prints with Manjiro’s own simple, expressive drawings interspersed, are at least as revealing. Seeing a photo of Commodore Perry side by side with a Japanese artist’s painted portrait, or strange renditions of a New England town and a steam train, based solely on Manjiro’s verbal descriptions, not only captures the unique flavor of Japanese art, but points up just how high were the self-imposed barriers that separated Japan from the rest of the world. Once again, Blumberg shows her ability to combine high adventure with vivid historical detail to open a window onto the past. (source note) (Biography. 10-13)
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2001
ISBN: 0-688-17484-1
Page Count: 80
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Born in 1880 in a tiny backwater in Alabama, Helen Keller lived a life familiar to many from the play and movie The Miracle Worker, as well as countless biographies. There’s no denying the drama in the story of the deaf and blind child for whom the world of language became possible through a dedicated and fanatically stubborn teacher, Annie Sullivan. But Helen’s life after that is even more remarkable: she went to high school and then to Radcliffe; she was a radical political thinker and a member of the Wobblies; she supported herself by lecture tours and vaudeville excursions as well as through the kindness of many. Dash (The Longitude Prize, p. 1483) does a clear-sighted and absorbing job of examining Annie’s prickly personality and the tender family that she, Helen, and Annie’s husband John Macy formed. She touches on the family pressures that conspired to keep Helen from her own pursuit of love and marriage; she makes vivid not only Helen’s brilliant and vibrant intelligence and personality, but the support of many people who loved her, cared for her, and served her. She also does not shrink from the describing the social and class divisions that kept some from crediting Annie Sullivan and others intent on making Helen into a puppet and no more. Riveting reading for students in need of inspiration, or who’re overcoming disability or studying changing expectations for women. (Biography. 10-14)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-590-90715-8
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2000
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