Aspects of visual discontinuity detract from this otherwise sensitive treatment of a celebrated guitarist’s early...
This affectionate portrait of guitar great Arthel “Doc” Watson focuses on his formative musical influences during his Appalachian childhood.
Gourley’s lyrical prose incorporates occasional diction derived from the setting. “Yonder, where blue mountains meet the sky, Arthel Watson was born into a world of music.” Arthel listens intently—to farm animals, a distant train, peeping frogs and more. He has “ears like a cat.” A page turn reveals an inky-black double-page spread and one stark, speculative sentence: “Maybe it was because he was blind.” Arthel’s “heart full of melody” can’t be contained. He drums on pots and strums a steel wire strung to the sliding barn door. His Pappy gives him a harmonica, makes him a banjo and buys his first guitar, from which Arthel’s inseparable. Arthel learns farm chores, practicing guitar in between. “He reckoned if he could work like everyone else, he could play music like the folks he heard on the records and the radio.” The narrative ends with a beginning and an image of a taller Arthel, guitar in hand. Gourley’s watercolors, while often lovely, depict Arthel unevenly, with some spreads appearing less finished than others. For example, the boy’s strawberry-blond hair is, at turns, textured with light pencil strokes, heavily crayoned or left untouched.
Aspects of visual discontinuity detract from this otherwise sensitive treatment of a celebrated guitarist’s early inspirations. (biographical note, bibliography, list of websites) (Picture book/biography. 5-8)Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-544-12988-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
One of the watershed moments in African-American history—the defeat of James Braddock at the hands of Joe Louis—is here given an earnest picture-book treatment. Despite his lack of athletic ability, Sammy wants desperately to be a great boxer, like his hero, getting boxing lessons from his friend Ernie in exchange for help with schoolwork. However hard he tries, though, Sammy just can’t box, and his father comforts him, reminding him that he doesn’t need to box: Joe Louis has shown him that he “can be the champion at anything [he] want[s].” The high point of this offering is the big fight itself, everyone crowded around the radio in Mister Jake’s general store, the imagined fight scenes played out in soft-edged sepia frames. The main story, however, is so bent on providing Sammy and the reader with object lessons that all subtlety is lost, as Mister Jake, Sammy’s father, and even Ernie hammer home the message. Both text and oil-on-canvas-paper illustrations go for the obvious angle, making the effort as a whole worthy, but just a little too heavy-handed. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: May 1, 2004
ISBN: 1-58430-161-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Lee & Low Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2004
A beautifully designed book that will resonate with children and the adults who wisely share it with them.
An inspirational ode to the life of the great South African leader by an award-winning author and illustrator.
Mandela’s has been a monumental life, a fact made clear on the front cover, which features an imposing, full-page portrait. The title is on the rear cover. His family gave him the Xhosa name Rolihlahla, but his schoolteacher called him Nelson. Later, he was sent to study with village elders who told him stories about his beautiful and fertile land, which was conquered by European settlers with more powerful weapons. Then came apartheid, and his protests, rallies and legal work for the cause of racial equality led to nearly 30 years of imprisonment followed at last by freedom for Mandela and for all South Africans. “The ancestors, / The people, / The world, / Celebrated.” Nelson’s writing is spare, poetic, and grounded in empathy and admiration. His oil paintings on birch plywood are muscular and powerful. Dramatic moments are captured in shifting perspectives; a whites-only beach is seen through a wide-angle lens, while faces behind bars and faces beaming in final victory are masterfully portrayed in close-up.
A beautifully designed book that will resonate with children and the adults who wisely share it with them. (author’s note, bibliography) (Picture book/biography. 5-8)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-178374-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2012
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