A lesser-known but significant encounter with all-too-current resonances.
Profiles of the first two Native players to make history by facing off in a World Series: Charles Bender and John Meyers.
Properly rejecting the conventional sobriquets (both were often referred to as “Chief” in newspapers despite not being tribal leaders) as inaccurate and disrespectful and using her subjects’ given names (or childhood nicknames) throughout, Sorell weaves into her brief but suspenseful recap of the 1911 Series accounts of both men’s paths to the major leagues. Bender left the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota to pitch for the Philadelphia Athletics after escaping abusive experiences both at home, from his German American father, and in a boarding school; Meyers resisted “pressure to adopt white people’s norms” as he left the Cahuilla reservation in California for spots on several semipro teams and then spoke out against injustices against Native people as a catcher for the New York Giants. Adding carefully authenticated Ojibwe and Cahuilla motifs on framing borders, Starr offers a set of clean-lined on-field tableaux, montages, and baseball card–style portraits of the chiseled players in period uniforms. Though the author does give her stars’ later careers (and, in a closing timeline, lives) quick overviews, the story she tells is at least as much about racism as it is about baseball, with several references to “slights and slurs” along with documented prejudicial quotes and headlines from the time identified as “insults.” Nor has the onslaught let up significantly: “From peewee to professional levels,” she concludes, “no other athletes in the United States face the kind of sanctioned mocking and dishonor of their culture that Native players do.” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A lesser-known but significant encounter with all-too-current resonances. (author’s note, quotes, sources) (Informational picture book. 7-10)Pub Date: April 11, 2023
ISBN: 9780593406472
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Kokila
Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
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
Inspiration for nature-loving children.
If you’re a child who collects nature’s treasures, you’re in good company.
This cleverly conceived and appealingly executed title addresses young readers directly, connecting their noticing and collecting habits to those of others who continued to observe, collect, and organize in adulthood. Montgomery introduces a grandly diverse array of nine naturalists, researchers, and explorers from Maria Sibylla Merian, who studied butterflies in the 17th century, to Bonnie Lei, whose present-day research focuses on sea-life conservation. Three are people of color, and the majority are female. The young George Washington Carver collected seed pods; deep-sea explorer William Beebe collected birds’ eggs; and young Jane Goodall put worms under her pillow! Other profiles include Charles Darwin, tree-canopy explorer Margaret Lowman, herpetologist Diego Cisneros-Heredia, and fossil hunter Mary Anning. The vignettes from childhood are engaging, well paced, and smoothly told. Short introductions to the adult scientists follow, in a smaller font. In her author’s note, the writer introduces the concept of naturalist intelligence. Lechuga’s friendly illustrations feature the brown-skinned girl with Afro puffs and overflowing pockets shown on the cover as well as the scientists as children, then as adults, in appropriate times and places. The backmatter includes more about the grown-up scientists and the author’s own sensible “rules for collecting,” which involve respect for nature, the people she lives with, and herself (safety). The illustrator reminds readers that habits of observation are something she also shares with scientists.
Inspiration for nature-loving children. (field guides, selected bibliography) (Informational picture book. 7-10)Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-62354-122-4
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
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