With its generous sampling of primary sources and detailed accounts of historical events, this volume offers much for the...
Panchyk offers a 400-year history of Boston, covering the arrival of European settlers through the Boston Marathon bombing.
The book’s timeline begins in 1614 with Capt. John Smith exploring the Massachusetts coast. Chapter 1, “Roots,” describes the first European settlers and their arrival in Massachusetts, Boston’s geology, and the origins of the city’s name. Native Americans are mentioned only once in passing, until the last page of the chapter, which offers an activity that discusses the origins of the name Massachusetts and encourages readers to search for Native names of places near them and to see “which tribes lived in your area in centuries past.” Chapter 2, “Early Roots,” describes early Colonial government and laws, the 1638 earthquake, the smallpox outbreak, and the witch trials. A small column tells of the banning of Native Americans from Boston in 1675 after King Philip’s War, a ban that was not repealed until 2005, and the mass jailing of Native people on the harbor’s islands. Chapters on the Revolution, the post-Revolution period of development and immigration, and modern Boston detail major events, development of the city, and cultural notes, with almost all of the highlights placing the contributions of white Americans at the center. Suggested activities range in nature from creative writing (write a poem inspired by Emerson, write newspaper headlines) to science (an archaeological dig), architecture, and math (home-run percentage). Some of the activities offer a deeper level of critical thinking suitable for older children, while others are simplistic.
With its generous sampling of primary sources and detailed accounts of historical events, this volume offers much for the young history enthusiast, but it misses an opportunity to incorporate Indigenous people and non-Europeans in a meaningful way. (timeline, resources, index) (Nonfiction. 9-14)Pub Date: April 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-61373-712-5
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Deftly written and informative; a call for vigilance and equality.
An examination of the history of Chinese American experiences.
Blackburn opens with a note to readers about growing up feeling invisible as a multicultural, biracial Chinese American. She notes the tremendous diversity of Chinese American history and writes that this book is a starting point for learning more. The evenly paced narrative starts with the earliest recorded arrival of the Chinese in America in 1834. A teenage girl, whose real name is unknown, arrived in New York Harbor with the Carnes brothers, merchants who imported Chinese goods and put her on display “like an animal in a circus.” The author then examines shifting laws, U.S. and global political and economic climates, and changing societal attitudes. The book introduces the highlighted people—including Yee Ah Tye, Wong Kim Ark, Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, and Vincent Chen—in relation to lawsuits or other transformative events; they also stand as examples for explaining concepts such as racial hierarchy and the model minority myth. Maps, photos, and documents are interspersed throughout. Chapters close with questions that encourage readers to think critically about systems of oppression, actively engage with the material, and draw connections to their own lives. Although the book covers a wide span of history, from the Gold Rush to the rise in anti-Asian hate during the Covid-19 pandemic, it thoroughly explains the various events. Blackburn doesn’t shy away from describing terrible setbacks, but she balances them with examples of solidarity and progress.
Deftly written and informative; a call for vigilance and equality. (resources, bibliography, image credits) (Nonfiction. 10-14)Pub Date: March 26, 2024
ISBN: 9780593567630
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
Like oil itself, this is a book that needs to be handled with special care.
In 1977, the oil carrier Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons of oil into a formerly pristine Alaskan ocean inlet, killing millions of birds, animals, and fish. Despite a cleanup, crude oil is still there.
The Winters foretold the destructive powers of the atomic bomb allusively in The Secret Project (2017), leaving the actuality to the backmatter. They make no such accommodations to young audiences in this disturbing book. From the dark front cover, on which oily blobs conceal a seabird, to the rescuer’s sad face on the back, the mother-son team emphasizes the disaster. A relatively easy-to-read and poetically heightened text introduces the situation. Oil is pumped from the Earth “all day long, all night long, / day after day, year after year” in “what had been unspoiled land, home to Native people // and thousands of caribou.” The scale of extraction is huge: There’s “a giant pipeline” leading to “enormous ships.” Then, crash. Rivers of oil gush out over three full-bleed wordless pages. Subsequent scenes show rocks, seabirds, and sea otters covered with oil. Finally, 30 years later, animals have returned to a cheerful scene. “But if you lift a rock… // oil / seeps / up.” For an adult reader, this is heartbreaking. How much more difficult might this be for an animal-loving child?
Like oil itself, this is a book that needs to be handled with special care. (author’s note, further reading) (Informational picture book. 9-12)Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-3077-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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