A tasty treat that’s informative to boot.
The tale of a real-life Willy Wonka who brought milk chocolate to the masses.
The eponymous chocolatier’s life begins with gusto, as he is seen peering mournfully at a window full of sweet treats. Born to a lower-income family, “Milton Hershey probably never tasted chocolate as a child.” It was working with confections and learning to make ice cream, lollipops, and taffy that turned him on to the idea of candy as a career. Unfortunately, his businesses flopped three times in a row, leading him to the enterprising choice of trying his hand with caramels. That venture succeeded, but after witnessing German chocolate-making machines at the Chicago’s World’s Fair, he was hooked. “The caramel business is a fad. But chocolate is something we will always have.” Even so, the book shows Hershey’s repeated failures, experiments, tests, trials, and, finally, success. His philanthropic pursuits, such as establishing a school for orphaned boys, are touched upon at the end. What sticks out, however, is the sheer amount of trying and failing that led to his ultimate triumph. Salerno, no stranger to biographical portraits of the past, makes the book as visually sweet and delicious as a chocolate bar itself. While it is nearly impossible to write a biography of Hershey without sounding like an advertisement, this particular icon’s tale is already a familiar name to most. Background characters are racially diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A tasty treat that’s informative to boot. (source notes, photographs, bibliography, further resources, timeline) (Picture-book biography. 4-9)Pub Date: Dec. 13, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-358-57875-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2022
Erupt into applause for this picture book of the first magma-tude.
A deceptively simple, visually appealing, comprehensive explanation of volcanoes.
Gibbons packs an impressive number of facts into this browsable nonfiction picture book. The text begins with the awe of a volcanic eruption: “The ground begins to rumble…ash, hot lava and rock, and gases shoot up into the air.” Diagrams of the Earth’s structural layers—inner and outer core, mantle, and crust—undergird a discussion about why volcanoes occur. Simple maps of the Earth’s seven major tectonic plates show where volcanoes are likeliest to develop. Other spreads with bright, clearly labeled illustrations cover intriguing subtopics: four types of volcanoes and how they erupt; underwater volcanoes; well-known volcanoes and historic volcanic eruptions around the world; how to be safe in the vicinity of a volcano; and the work of scientists studying volcanoes and helping to predict eruptions. A page of eight facts about volcanoes wraps things up. The straightforward, concise prose will be easy for young readers to follow. As always, Gibbons manages to present a great deal of information in a compact form.
Erupt into applause for this picture book of the first magma-tude. (Nonfiction picture book. 4-9)Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4569-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2021
A unique angle on a watershed moment in the civil rights era.
The New Orleans school child who famously broke the color line in 1960 while surrounded by federal marshals describes the early days of her experience from a 6-year-old’s perspective.
Bridges told her tale to younger children in 2009’s Ruby Bridges Goes to School, but here the sensibility is more personal, and the sometimes-shocking historical photos have been replaced by uplifting painted scenes. “I didn’t find out what being ‘the first’ really meant until the day I arrived at this new school,” she writes. Unfrightened by the crowd of “screaming white people” that greets her at the school’s door (she thinks it’s like Mardi Gras) but surprised to find herself the only child in her classroom, and even the entire building, she gradually realizes the significance of her act as (in Smith’s illustration) she compares a small personal photo to the all-White class photos posted on a bulletin board and sees the difference. As she reflects on her new understanding, symbolic scenes first depict other dark-skinned children marching into classes in her wake to friendly greetings from lighter-skinned classmates (“School is just school,” she sensibly concludes, “and kids are just kids”) and finally an image of the bright-eyed icon posed next to a soaring bridge of reconciliation. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A unique angle on a watershed moment in the civil rights era. (author and illustrator notes, glossary) (Autobiographical picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-75388-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
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