Charming, warming girl power in early-20th-century immigrant New York.
Batya couldn’t be a woodcarver back in the old country, but maybe she can be one in the golden land of New York City.
In 1915 Russia, 12-year-old Batya isn’t allowed to apprentice to her woodcarver father. Her older brother, who lacks interest in the work, must nonetheless learn the trade. Batya’s life turns upside down when pogroms descend on their village, making it unsafe for her Jewish family to stay in Russia. After a journey that’s depressing and lovely by turns, Batya discovers she’s miserable in New York. Her baby sister’s gone deaf on the ship, the tenement they live in is ugly and cramped, and Batya struggles to learn English. Worst of all, there’s no time to whittle, and Papa can’t find a job carving, either. Eventually, Batya’s misery leads her into adventures that improve not only her life, but also her whole family’s. Her journey to become a woodcarver is framed from beginning to end with a lovely appreciation for the artistry of carousel horses. Some historical details are simplified, but for the most part these choices harmlessly ease the way for contemporary readers. Unfortunately, the narrative supports the urban legend that names were changed at Ellis Island by callous officials, which serves no storytelling purpose here. Non-English words are inconsistently italicized.
Charming, warming girl power in early-20th-century immigrant New York. (historical note, timeline, glossary) (Historical fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: April 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5415-8667-3
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Kar-Ben
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
The journey is even gently funny—Omakayas’s brother spends much of the year with a porcupine on his head. Charming and...
This third entry in the Birchbark House series takes Omakayas and her family west from their home on the Island of the Golden-Breasted Woodpecker, away from land the U.S. government has claimed.
Difficulties abound; the unknown landscape is fraught with danger, and they are nearing hostile Bwaanag territory. Omakayas’s family is not only close, but growing: The travelers adopt two young chimookoman (white) orphans along the way. When treachery leaves them starving and alone in a northern Minnesota winter, it will take all of their abilities and love to survive. The heartwarming account of Omakayas’s year of travel explores her changing family relationships and culminates in her first moon, the onset of puberty. It would be understandable if this darkest-yet entry in Erdrich’s response to the Little House books were touched by bitterness, yet this gladdening story details Omakayas’s coming-of-age with appealing optimism.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-06-029787-9
Page Count: 208
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2008
It’s not the first time old Ben has paid our times a call, but it’s funny and free-spirited, with an informational load that...
Antics both instructive and embarrassing ensue after a mysterious package left on their doorstep brings a Founding Father into the lives of two modern children.
Summoned somehow by what looks for all the world like an old-time crystal radio set, Ben Franklin turns out to be an amiable sort. He is immediately taken in hand by 7-year-old Olive for a tour of modern wonders—early versions of which many, from electrical appliances in the kitchen to the Illinois town’s public library and fire department, he justly lays claim to inventing. Meanwhile big brother Nolan, 10, tags along, frantic to return him to his own era before either their divorced mom or snoopy classmate Tommy Tuttle sees him. Fleming, author of Ben Franklin’s Almanac (2003) (and also, not uncoincidentally considering the final scene of this outing, Our Eleanor, 2005), mixes history with humor as the great man dispenses aphorisms and reminiscences through diverse misadventures, all of which end well, before vanishing at last. Following a closing, sequel-cueing kicker (see above) she then separates facts from fancies in closing notes, with print and online leads to more of the former. To go with spot illustrations of the evidently all-white cast throughout the narrative, Fearing incorporates change-of-pace sets of sequential panels for Franklin’s biographical and scientific anecdotes. Final illustrations not seen.
It’s not the first time old Ben has paid our times a call, but it’s funny and free-spirited, with an informational load that adds flavor without weight. (Graphic/fantasy hybrid. 9-11)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-101-93406-7
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
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