A look back at the integration of collegiate football.
A Spartan coach bucks the system in Shanahan’s illustrated children’s sports history.
Michigan State head coach Duffy Daugherty broke collegiate football barriers. Defensive end “Bubba” Smith’s own journey to Michigan State with his father, Willie Ray Smith Sr., sets the stage for a who’s who of men who helped Daugherty do so. Starting in Texas, Smith and his father make stops in eight other states to pick up other talented recruits who would form a trailblazing Spartan lineup that “led the nation in integrated rosters” between the years 1959 and 1972. From Clifton Roaf, the first Black recruit, to national title–winning quarterback Jimmy Raye and all-American Sherman Lewis, the author stresses the importance of each player’s life beyond the field; he writes that Duffy “cares about his players more than talent.” Shanahan keeps the dialogue simple: Willie Ray plainly states how the players became recruits, notes their positions or status, and outlines the results of their educational pursuits. Recurring cheeky retorts to home institutions that wouldn’t accept the athletes because of their skin color (“Too bad for Texas and Texas A&M they didn’t want Gene and me”) add a sly touch of social commentary. In Lewis’ full-color illustrations, cartoon-style characters are depicted against cool-colored backdrops featuring state shapes, a train, and a few images that make clear the reality of the segregated times. The comic-book design suits the question-and-answer exchanges, which appear in speech bubbles. The final two pages—one delineating the makeup of the 44 and highlighting their impact, followed by a page that lists the “The Big 44” chronologically from the first recruit in 1959 to the last in 1972—really drive home this important movement. (The men featured in the book are just a few from the group Shanahan calls “The Big 44.”) This is a worthy acknowledgment of a significant aspect of American sports history.
A look back at the integration of collegiate football.Pub Date: Feb. 22, 2024
ISBN: 9781962012942
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Enthusiastic and direct, this paean has a lovely ring to it.
Former National Youth Poet Laureate Gorman invites girls to raise their voices and make a difference.
“Today, we finally have a say,” proclaims the first-person plural narration as three girls (one presents Black, another is brown-skinned, and the third is light-skinned) pass one another marshmallows on a stick around a campfire. In Wise’s textured, almost three-dimensional illustrations, the trio traverse fantastical, often abstract landscapes, playing, demonstrating, eating, and even flying, while confident rhymes sing their praises and celebrate collective female victories. The phrase “LIBERATION. FREEDOM. RESPECT” appears on a protest sign that bookends their journey. Simple and accessible, the rhythmic visual storytelling presents an optimistic vision of young people working toward a better world. Sometimes family members or other diverse comrades surround the girls, emphasizing that power comes from community. Gorman is careful to specify that “some of us go by she / And some of us go by they.” She affirms, too, that each person is “a different shape and size,” though the art doesn’t show much variation in body type. Characters also vary in ability. Real-life figures emerge as the girls dream of past luminaries such as author Octavia Butler and activist Marsha P. Johnson, along with present-day role models including poet and journalist Plestia Alaqad and athlete Sha’carri Richardson; silhouettes stand in for heroines as yet unknown. Imagining that “we are where change is going” is hopeful indeed.
Enthusiastic and direct, this paean has a lovely ring to it. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780593624180
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute.
Readers bid farewell to a beloved canine character.
Momo is—or was—an adorable and very photogenic border collie owned by author Knapp. The many readers who loved him in the previous half-dozen books are in for a shock with this one. “Momo had died” is the stark reality—and there are no photographs of him here. Instead, Momo has been replaced by a flat cartoonish pastiche with strange, staring round white eyes, inserted into some of Knapp’s photography (which remains appealing, insofar as it can be discerned under the mixed media). Previous books contained few or no words. Unfortunately, virtuosity behind a lens does not guarantee mastery of verse. The art here is accompanied by words that sometimes rhyme but never find a workable or predictable rhythm (“We’d fetch and we’d catch, / we’d run and we’d jump. Every day we found new / games to play”). It’s a pity, because the subject—a pet’s death—is an important one to address with children. Of course, Momo isn’t gone; he can still be found “everywhere” in memories. But alas, he can be found here only in the crude depictions of the darling dog so well known from the earlier books.
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781683693864
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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