A brightly colored retread of voting rights in an easy package.
Hard-won civic rights turn Election Day into something special for one Black mother.
Madear’s children aren’t fully aware of how special today is, but their mother—sporting one of her best dresses—joyously explains that this Tuesday in 1969 will be the first day she gets to vote. She delivers a straightforward civic and history lesson to her children (one of whom narrates) and to readers: “Many obstacles [were] put up to prevent Black folks from voting.” The digital watercolor and mixed-media illustrations become relatively muted during flashbacks in which distressed Black folk are subjected to poll taxes, reading tests, and “even a test where people had to correctly guess the number of jelly beans in a jar!” The subsequent spread of protests contrasts with the vibrant images of Madear with kids in tow proceeding to their city hall in Taylorville, Louisiana. The monumental shift from the disenfranchised past to the present of 1969 is significant, but even still, the young narrator witnesses the mean looks Madear receives as she queues before the voting booth. Nonetheless, she votes and triumphantly leaves the building in her floral dress, bright orange coat, and head scarf, sun streaming behind her. Her children are equally ecstatic; the Voting Rights Act of 1965 would be just the beginning of Madear and her family’s electoral participation. The book concludes with the family celebrating the election of Barack Obama in 2008. This straightforward yet empowering tale will get youngsters energized for Election Day.
A brightly colored retread of voting rights in an easy package. (author’s and illustrator’s notes) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: July 16, 2024
ISBN: 9780593615744
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
While the blend of folklore, fantasy and realism is certainly far-fetched, Imani, with her winning personality, is a child...
Imani endures the insults heaped upon her by the other village children, but she never gives up her dreams.
The Masai girl is tiny compared to the other children, but she is full of imagination and perseverance. Luckily, she has a mother who believes in her and tells her stories that will fuel that imagination. Mama tells her about the moon goddess, Olapa, who wins over the sun god. She tells Imani about Anansi, the trickster spider who vanquishes a larger snake. (Troublingly, the fact that Anansi is a West African figure, not of the Masai, goes unaddressed in both text and author’s note.) Inspired, the tiny girl tries to find new ways to achieve her dream: to touch the moon. One day, after crashing to the ground yet again when her leafy wings fail, she is ready to forget her hopes. That night, she witnesses the adumu, the special warriors’ jumping dance. Imani wakes the next morning, determined to jump to the moon. After jumping all day, she reaches the moon, meets Olapa and receives a special present from the goddess, a small moon rock. Now she becomes the storyteller when she relates her adventure to Mama. The watercolor-and-graphite illustrations have been enhanced digitally, and the night scenes of storytelling and fantasy with their glowing stars and moons have a more powerful impact than the daytime scenes, with their blander colors.
While the blend of folklore, fantasy and realism is certainly far-fetched, Imani, with her winning personality, is a child to be admired. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-934133-57-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Mackinac Island Press
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014
The dynamic interaction between the characters invites readers to take risks, push boundaries, and have a little unscripted...
Reinvention is the name of the game for two blobs of clay.
A blue-eyed gray blob and a brown-eyed brown blob sit side by side, unsure as to what’s going to happen next. The gray anticipates an adventure, while the brown appears apprehensive. A pair of hands descends, and soon, amid a flurry of squishing and prodding and poking and sculpting, a handsome gray wolf and a stately brown owl emerge. The hands disappear, leaving the friends to their own devices. The owl is pleased, but the wolf convinces it that the best is yet to come. An ear pulled here and an extra eye placed there, and before you can shake a carving stick, a spurt of frenetic self-exploration—expressed as a tangled black scribble—reveals a succession of smug hybrid beasts. After all, the opportunity to become a “pig-e-phant” doesn’t come around every day. But the sound of approaching footsteps panics the pair of Picassos. How are they going to “fix [them]selves” on time? Soon a hippopotamus and peacock are staring bug-eyed at a returning pair of astonished hands. The creative naiveté of the “clay mates” is perfectly captured by Petty’s feisty, spot-on dialogue: “This was your idea…and it was a BAD one.” Eldridge’s endearing sculpted images are photographed against the stark white background of an artist’s work table to great effect.
The dynamic interaction between the characters invites readers to take risks, push boundaries, and have a little unscripted fun of their own . (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 20, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-316-30311-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
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