Aims for charm and historical import but achieves neither.
Between 1927 and 1999, a house sees four families move in and depart in a picture book adapted from the author’s 2016 book for adults of the same name.
As in Virginia Lee Burton’s classic The Little House (1942), the house itself is the story’s hub. Perched lakeside near Berlin, this house alternately feels “happy,” “abandoned and unloved,” and “alive.” Descriptions of the residents are similarly romantic: “a kind doctor and his cheery wife”; “the musical family”; “a man with a fluffy hat.” How jarring, then, for the families to be coming and going due to events such as genocide, and how much more jarring for those events to be only vaguely implied. Little boys grow from playing in the sand to wearing Hitler Youth uniforms, but the uniforms aren’t identified. World War II and the Berlin Wall go unnamed too, while Nazis are called only “angry men.” The fluffy-hatted man “spie[s] on his neighbors”—huh? Why? This evasive piece sidesteps atrocities and even bare historical details. Readers who already know enough pertinent history to understand Harding’s subtle allusions aren’t the same readers who’d enjoy a lakeside house’s seasonal and emotional cycles. An author’s note supplies names and dates but still never delves into explaining the Nazis, Hitler Youth, or the Berlin Wall; it identifies which families were Jewish but never says why that’s relevant. Teckentrup’s textured artwork is similarly allusive, including a terrifying scene of aerial bombardment and another of a line of tanks but still failing to fill in the narrative gaps. All characters depicted have pale skin.
Aims for charm and historical import but achieves neither. (Informational picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5362-1274-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Candlewick Studio
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses.
An NBA star pays tribute to the influence of his grandfather.
In the same vein as his Long Shot (2009), illustrated by Frank Morrison, this latest from Paul prioritizes values and character: “My granddad Papa Chilly had dreams that came true,” he writes, “so maybe if I listen and watch him, / mine will too.” So it is that the wide-eyed Black child in the simply drawn illustrations rises early to get to the playground hoops before anyone else, watches his elder working hard and respecting others, hears him cheering along with the rest of the family from the stands during games, and recalls in a prose afterword that his grandfather wasn’t one to lecture but taught by example. Paul mentions in both the text and the backmatter that Papa Chilly was the first African American to own a service station in North Carolina (his presumed dream) but not that he was killed in a robbery, which has the effect of keeping the overall tone positive and the instructional content one-dimensional. Figures in the pictures are mostly dark-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-81003-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
A pivotal moment in a child’s life, at once stirring and authentically personal.
Before growing up to become a major figure in the civil rights movement, a boy finds a role model.
Buffing up a childhood tale told by her renowned father, Young Shelton describes how young Andrew saw scary men marching in his New Orleans neighborhood (“It sounded like they were yelling ‘Hi, Hitler!’ ”). In response to his questions, his father took him to see a newsreel of Jesse Owens (“a runner who looked like me”) triumphing in the 1936 Olympics. “Racism is a sickness,” his father tells him. “We’ve got to help folks like that.” How? “Well, you can start by just being the best person you can be,” his father replies. “It’s what you do that counts.” In James’ hazy chalk pastels, Andrew joins racially diverse playmates (including a White child with an Irish accent proudly displaying the nickel he got from his aunt as a bribe to stop playing with “those Colored boys”) in tag and other games, playing catch with his dad, sitting in the midst of a cheering crowd in the local theater’s segregated balcony, and finally visualizing himself pelting down a track alongside his new hero—“head up, back straight, eyes focused,” as a thematically repeated line has it, on the finish line. An afterword by Young Shelton explains that she retold this story, told to her many times growing up, drawing from conversations with Young and from her own research; family photos are also included. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A pivotal moment in a child’s life, at once stirring and authentically personal. (illustrator’s note) (Autobiographical picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-545-55465-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
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