Katz has experimented with writing poems in the voices of Americans of the past, utilizing this approach with original poems in American History Poems (1998). In this new collection, 28 of the 30 poems from that volume are reprinted, along with 37 new poems written for this one. Her impeccable research is reflected in both the panoramic scope and exacting details of this project, with an amazing variety of poems in voices representing every age group and many cultures and perspectives. Each indicates its “author,” the date, and the place of composition. At the bottom of each page, important dates and quotations are printed in light blue, helping ground each poem in historical context, and providing a time line throughout the book. Some of the poems are in the voices of famous leaders, explorers, or inventors who were actual historical figures; others are by average men or women of the author’s invention; and many of the poems are in the fictional voices of children and young adults. The poems are presented in chronological order, divided into sections for each century. Crews (Ghost Story, 2000) provides a photographic montage to introduce each section, with a different typeface used for the poems of each century, moving gradually toward a more modern look. The poetic forms also progress through the centuries, from structured poems in formal language to more casual and humorous poems to modern formats such as rap, shape poems, and even a collection of e-mails. An author’s note, bibliography, and source notes on the art are also included. Creative teachers will like the possibilities inherent in this collection: for choral readings, a “poetry through the centuries” performance, or as a spark for poetry-writing assignments. A chorus of lively, informative voices waiting to be discovered by those who make the effort to listen. (Poetry. 9+)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2000
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
An epic fantasy with timeless themes and unforgettable characters.
Two young people save the world and all the magic in it in this series opener.
When tall, dark-haired, white-skinned Christopher Forrester goes to stay with his grandfather in Scotland, he ventures to the top of a forbidden hill and discovers astonishing magical creatures. His grandfather explains that Christopher’s family are guardians of the “way through” to the Archipelago, where the Glimourie Tree grows—the source of glimourie, or the world’s magic. Black-haired, olive-skinned Mal Arvorian, a girl from the Archipelago, is being pursued by a murderer, and she asks Christopher for help, launching them both on a wild, dangerous journey to discover why the glimourie is disappearing and how to stop it. Together with a part-nereid woman, a ratatoska, a dragon, and a Berserker, they face an odyssey of dangerous tasks to find the Immortal, the only one who can reverse the draining of magic. Like Lyra and Will from Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, Mal and Christopher sacrifice their innocence for experience, meeting every challenge with depthless courage until they finally reach the maze at the heart of it all. Rundell throws myriad obstacles in her characters’ way, but she gives them tools both tangible (a casapasaran, which always points the way home, and the glamry blade, which cuts through anything) and intangible (the desire “to protect something worth protecting” and an “insistence that the world is worth loving”). Final art not seen.
An epic fantasy with timeless themes and unforgettable characters. (map, bestiary) (Fantasy. 10-16)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9780593809860
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel.
Sure signs that the creative wells are running dry at last, the Captain’s ninth, overstuffed outing both recycles a villain (see Book 4) and offers trendy anti-bullying wish fulfillment.
Not that there aren’t pranks and envelope-pushing quips aplenty. To start, in an alternate ending to the previous episode, Principal Krupp ends up in prison (“…a lot like being a student at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School, except that the prison had better funding”). There, he witnesses fellow inmate Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) escape in a giant Robo-Suit (later reduced to time-traveling trousers). The villain sets off after George and Harold, who are in juvie (“not much different from our old school…except that they have library books here.”). Cut to five years previous, in a prequel to the whole series. George and Harold link up in kindergarten to reduce a quartet of vicious bullies to giggling insanity with a relentless series of pranks involving shaving cream, spiders, effeminate spoof text messages and friendship bracelets. Pilkey tucks both topical jokes and bathroom humor into the cartoon art, and ups the narrative’s lexical ante with terms like “pharmaceuticals” and “theatrical flair.” Unfortunately, the bullies’ sad fates force Krupp to resign, so he’s not around to save the Earth from being destroyed later on by Talking Toilets and other invaders…
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-17534-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
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