A fascinating, larger-than-life personality is deservedly brought to readers’ attention in this fine offering.
A cycling novice takes up an extraordinary challenge.
Two men offered $10,000 to the first woman to circumnavigate the globe by bike. Annie Londonderry—full name Annie Cohen Kopchovsky Londonderry (1870-1947)—a 24-year-old Jewish homemaker, had never ridden a bike, but she needed that money. The deal had a few stipulations: She had to earn $5,000 while traveling and return in 15 months or less. As a child, Annie had faced challenges learning English as a recent Latvian immigrant. Now she mastered cycling—in two lessons. On June 25, 1894, Annie left Boston with only an extra pair of undergarments. Roads were rough; she ate sparingly and occasionally slept on the ground. Eventually, Annie doffed her skirts, instead opting for bloomers. She traded her bike for a lighter, faster, brakeless men’s racer, changed directions, and boarded a Europe-bound ship, where she gave paid lectures. She made her way through Asia, sailed the Pacific, and crossed the United States. Journalists reported on the exploits of Annie, who continued earning money by lecturing. On September 12, 1895, she completed her journey, 14 days early. This fast-paced, well-written tale tells the story of a remarkable, determined woman. The quirky, lively illustrations, rendered in oil paint with varnish, sometimes presented as vignettes, nicely capture period settings and details. The mantra “pedal, balance, steer” “careens” throughout the artwork, the words and letters playfully stretching out; quotes from Annie are interspersed throughout.
A fascinating, larger-than-life personality is deservedly brought to readers’ attention in this fine offering. (author’s note; brakes, bloomers, and other bicycle bits; timeline; bibliography) (Informational picture book. 6-10)Pub Date: Feb. 20, 2024
ISBN: 9781635926828
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Calkins Creek/Astra Books for Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2023
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Bridges Goes to School, but here the sensibility is more personal, and the sometimes-shocking historical photos have been replaced by uplifting painted scenes.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
PERSPECTIVES
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
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