Children's Books discussion
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February 2021: History
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Beverly, Miscellaneous Club host
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Jan 31, 2021 03:13PM
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My favorite! The first Dewey Decimal call number I ever learned was 973 American history.I read everything. Quite literally- the library was tiny.
I highly recommend the now out of print American Girl books titled Welcome to___ (character's name) World
Welcome to Kaya's World, 1764: Growing Up in a Native American Homeland is the most fascinating for me because Kaya's world is way out of my wheelhouse.
Welcome to Addy's World · 1864: Growing Up During America's Civil War didn't tell me anything I didn't already know.
In case you stumble across the pop-up books
Samantha's World: A Girl's-Eye View of the Turn of the 20th Century
Kit's World: A Girl's-Eye View of the Great Depression
Don't be turned off by the pop-up aspect. BUY the books! I found Kit cheap at the thrift store and bought it to share with my niece. I was pleasantly surprised and pleased to discover the wealth of historical information presented in a fun, interactive format. I bought Samantha's book after that. I also recently bought, for my niece and nephew but kept Molly's Route 66 Adventure, an interactive book about historic Route 66 in 1946. I hope to get another copy for the kids if they take a trip out west this year.
Other great books include
Factory Girl it mixes fact and fiction to teach about child labor. This book was helpful for my job in sharing visuals with girls on my special American Girl themed tour.
Searching for Sarah Rector: The Richest Black Girl in America
Maritcha: A Nineteenth-Century American Girl
At Her Majesty's Request: An African Princess in Victorian England
Founding Mothers: Remembering the Ladies
I can come up with more tomorrow. I have a children's reference shelf in my other room.
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Cheryl wrote: "I just read what turned out to be YA, but read more like an adult book. A Little Love SongI did not enjoy that one as much as Back Home and the book wasn't as good as the Disney Channel movie. That's another one Disney+ is missing. They're missing all the good movies from the 90s. I've read many other evacuee stories that I enjoyed more.
I've literally read hundreds of historical fiction novels. I started with Little House in the Big Woods and haven't stopped!
Sarah Morton's Day: A Day In The Life Of A Pilgrim Girl, On The Mayflower: Voyage Of The Ship's Apprentice And A Passenger Girl, 1621 Harvest Feast, Samuel Eaton's Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim BoyA visit to Plimoth Plantation in a book. Sarah Morton was a classic staple through my grade school years and beyond. I didn't like reading about BOYS (ewww) so I didn't read the others until adulthood. The focus is very narrow and they don't get into issues of right or wrong, which I like. It's just history. This is how it was for kids like you.
Mayflower 1620: A New Look at a Pilgrim Voyage- Excellent - contains both English and Native perspective
1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving- Excellent and informative look at what the 1621 harvest feast was and not what the 19th-century myths tell us.
If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620
- Q&A format. A decent book about the Mayflower journey. I'm sure there are new ones from last year's 400th anniversary.
The Pilgrims' First Thanksgiving
Three Young Pilgrims
Life in Colonial America Excellent and informative. Read this after reading The Witch of Blackbird Pond
An Introduction to Williamsburg by Valerie Tripp (not in GoodReads Library) published by Pleasant Company. This is a little dated, especially the photos, but a good introduction to colonial life in Williamsburg.
Mary Geddy's Day: A Colonial Girl in Williamsburg A very good pictorial history of a middling child's life in Virginia prior to the Revolution. More honest portrayal than Felicity but I can see the influence on Felicity's collection. I have yet to make it to the Geddy House and Foundry. It's only open on select days and NEVER the two times I've been in Williamsburg.
Independent Dames: What You Never Knew About the Women and Girls of the American Revolution- basic profiles of important women and girls, similar to Cokie Roberts' book but a bit more in-depth
The American Revolution for Kids: A History with 21 Activities This is a lot for a kid to read on their own. The projects are pretty war-centered. Useful for homeschooling and supplemental education.
Immigrant Kids is a very simple book with lots of pictures of immigrant children from the Ellis Island era. My parents picked this up at the Tenement Museum in New York. I didn't really look at it carefully.
How the Other Half Lives- I can't find my edition published by Dover for children. My parents also picked this up at the Tenement Museum. It's a good introduction to life in 19th and early 20th century America.
The Day The Women Got The Vote: A Photo History Of The Women's Rights Movement I've had this one a long time. The text isn't great, pretty basic but the photos are interesting. Niece wouldn't read it as a compliment to a fiction novel she was reading for school. She just flipped through and was like "yeah OK."
Lincoln: A Photobiography very good biography with primary source photos. May be dated by now.
The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary (older MG/YA) -- I never made it all the way through the text but the primary sources are interesting.
Many Thousand Gone: African Americans from Slavery to Freedom recommended by my reference library professor #OwnVoices book
I want to mention the Images of America series. These appealed to me as a kid. There was an early version of my city that I enjoyed. (My neighborhood dated to 1643 and some of the homes go back to post King Phillips' War of 1675-1676). I returned to it in high school and have read a bunch of local interest.
A curious, nerdy child would certainly be able to read these even if they're not specifically children's books.
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I've literally read hundreds of historical fiction novels. I started with Little House in the Big Woods and haven't stopped! .."
:-)
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This book was MUCH shorter than I expected, in fact it is in picture book format. But it should be an eye-opener for little girls that think a medieval princess's life is Disney castles and floaty dresses. Heos uses lots of humor to compare a fairy tale princess to a real one, such as the moat is full of garbage and stinks; instead of a princess bed, she shares a bed with several siblings; instead of cupcakes, they have aged cheese for dessert, and more. There is additional information in the author's note in the back and a short bibliography, The cartoon illustrations are a humorous enhancement to the text. An excellent comparison between fairy tale princesses, and what the lives of real, actual princesses were like in the years between 1100 and 1300 A. D.
Mod
This book was MUCH shorter than I expected, in fact it is in picture ..."
Cool! I think the shared bed is a good thing, though, in drafty castles and with the loneliness of rank. :)
The Colonial CookThis book explains who, what, how people in the colonial period cooked and includes a few recipes, cooking tips, glossary and index. It's illustrated with both drawn illustrations and photos. Both of which are in need of updating. Only the ones from Colonial Williamsburg and I guess Old Salem can stay. It includes small farm houses, plantation houses, enslaved people and Indians. I'm not sure BIPOC people would like those sections or the illustrations. There's nothing really outrageously wrong, just a bit simplified. "The Indians taught the settlers how to..." My personal opinion is this book has a lot of value for an elementary school classroom (grades 1-3) to be used by the teacher to instruct children on what they will see when visiting a living history museum. This would save a lot of time and stop the kids from annoying the nice museum guide by asking irrelevant questions about everything they see. ("How long does it take to churn butter?" I have absolutely no idea! I've never tried it.) It won't stop ALL the irrelevant questions ("Who invented cars? Who invented baseball?") but it would help get kids familiar with the colonial kitchen. (I do miss my job, just not the school groups!)
A Colonial Town: Williamsburg The photos are badly dated and in need of replacing NOW. I don't remember this book being sold in the bookstore at CW in 2019. It's old and dated. It starts with a very basic overview of Jamestown but leaves out the clashes with the natives. It does mention slaves, indentured servants but not so much free people of color. In 1992, when this book was published, the CWF focused on decorative arts and less on interpretation of history. They've tweaked their focus so many times since then and now try to include all stories from all people who lived and worked in Williamsburg in the 18th-century. Jamestown is wonderful too, especially the indoor museums. I guess you could check this book out of the library to introduce a very small child to the concept of what they will experience in Williamsburg but for someone looking for more information on what it was really like, this is not a relevant book. Introduction to Williamsburg is better in terms of content. It was published in the same year so the pictures are dated but I was able to use this book to help young girls understand household chores in the pre-Industrial era.
Mod
And I did not really enjoy the novel in verse format here, finding that it trivialises the contents and themes and makes it much harder to get to know especially Sophie Scholl on a personal and deeper level.
Gibson Girls and Suffragists: Perceptions of Women from 1900 to 1918I didn't find this book academically sound. The author lost me when she kept writing "turn-of-the-nineteenth-century" when she meant twentieth. (19th-century 1801-1900, 20th-century 1901-2000). Then there was a little mistake about Alva Vanderbilt Belmont. The photo was captioned Ava not Alva and then she was labeled the President of the National Women's Party. Um no, that was Alice Paul! Alva was the head of the New York branch. Not even the acting head, just the head.
The photo credits leave a lot to be desired. I recognized some of the images and they weren't attributed except to the general agency where the publisher found them. It would be nice to say Harper's Bazaar, issue, number, 1879 or whatever, in the collections of the Newport (R.I.) Historical Society or Google Books or wherever the primary source is located. Also some of the photos may have been propaganda or meant to be titillating.
This book is probably meant for middle schoolers and high schoolers needing a general overview. I didn't like how the time period was all jumbled together without a timeline. I like nice, chronological order because it makes sense. This book is arranged by theme. Because it's a book meant for children, it doesn't go into the story of the Gibson Girl Evelyn Nesbitt and the darker side of life at the time. It could have at least mentioned she was a model and Lucy Maud Montgomery used her picture for the cover of Anne of Green Gables.
The author also does not go into great detail about the racism of the time. She makes it sound all rah-rah women were working hard to get ahead. She does talk about the "antis" with some great illustrations from the time and a very brief side story about African-American women. There's also a side story about Zitkala-Ša. I would have liked more about Ida B. Wells Barnett.
I also would have liked more about muckraking journalists like Ida Tarbell and Nellie Bly.
I very much enjoyed the period advertisement Gillette razors for women. I didn't know those existed as far back as the 1920s.
I also liked learning more about working women and women in WWI.
There's so much to cover that I think the author couldn't do the topic justice in this slim volume. It took me a long time to read it because I couldn't get over the errors and omissions. I probably would have enjoyed this a LOT more before grad school!
Mod
Cheryl wrote: "That's too bad. Kids deserve accuracy and complete attributions, too. If only your notes could be enclosed in every copy, so we could still encourage them to read it for the good aspects.... :)"Hopefully the publisher corrected the mistakes at least in later editions. It's hard to tell with library books. I could probably track down more of the photo credits. I'm certain one was from a movie, I just don't know which one. That's the problem with generic publishers like that.
On the plus side, this book does talk about some of the darker stuff that isn't necessarily something kids are reading about. This book is more for older middle school and high school age range so I hope they are supplementing their reports with other books and websites. There's a MILLION great sites out there for the 100th anniversary of the 19th-ammendment!
Mod
Clearly, concisely penned (and with in my opinion enough textual detail for adequate facts but not so many minutiae that Ann Bausum’s printed words could risk becoming informationally overwhelming) Ensnared in the Wolf's Lair: Inside the 1944 Plot to Kill Hitler and the Ghost Children of His Revenge has been not only an interesting but also an extremely sobering, painful and eye-opening personal reading experience.
For while as a person of German background (and with advanced university level graduate degrees in German language and literature that also and naturally include basic German history and therefore of course WWII and National Socialism) I of course was prior to my perusal of Ensnared in the Wolf's Lair: Inside the 1944 Plot to Kill Hitler and the Ghost Children of His Revenge already more than well aware of (and also bien sûr in absolute agreement with) the April 1944 assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler, that it sadly failed, and indeed, that not only the many conspirators but also their families were arrested, incarcerated and even those family members often executed, I was in fact not all that cognizant of just how far Hitler and the Gestapo went with their rabid need for revenge, that not only the wives, adult friends, cousins, uncles etc. of the main so-called movers and shakers were rounded up en masse to face the Führer’s wrath, but that this also pertained to children (and some of them even toddlers), with teenagers either sent to the front as basically cannon fodder or to serve as forced labour, as slaves, and younger children stripped of their identities and sent to a former youth retreat named Borntal, where they were not allowed to speak of either their families or to outsiders and where their care was at best substandard and at worst a form of psychological torture.
And Ann Bausum does thus also show with her text, does demonstrate with Ensnared in the Wolf's Lair: Inside the 1944 Plot to Kill Hitler and the Ghost Children of His Revenge just why there likely was so little open dissent and active resistance within Germany proper against Adolf Hitler, since the concept, since the possibility of Sippenhaft (of collective family punishments) was certainly known or at least more than suspected. And with this in mind, for me this also rather makes the 1944 attempt on Hitler even more laudable in many ways (for the conspirators must of course have been aware of what would likely be the consequences if their plot to kill Adolf Hitler should fail, but of course the question must equally be asked whether immediate and extended family members were even asked and that in particular the younger children would not have had any say whatsoever in the matter but still ended up paying a hugely traumatic and sometimes even deadly price for simply being related to, being of the same genetics as the conspirators of the April 1944 Adolf Hitler assassination plot).
Furthermore, because of the nature of the text, because of its contents, that it does involve young children and that much of this is or at least can be heavy duty and emotional, I would definitely suggest Ensnared in the Wolf's Lair: Inside the 1944 Plot to Kill Hitler and the Ghost Children of His Revenge for readers above the age of at least ten (and yes, this even though Ann Bausum’s writing style is probably simple enough for slightly younger children). With many accompanying photographs and totally wonderful supplemental research and learning sources, including detailed bibliographic materials, timelines etc., for me Ensnared in the Wolf's Lair: Inside the 1944 Plot to Kill Hitler and the Ghost Children of His Revenge is most definitely a solid five stars, and most highly recommended (even though I do leave the for me necessary caveat that the facts, that the information presented by Ann Bausum is indeed painful, infuriating and saddening, to be expected of course, but I do feel warnings are warranted).
And I did a bit of research on Sippenhaft. Collective punishment is something that was actually quite common in Germanic/Norse culture but then, it was used for fines and to make sure that the victims of crimes were compensated (and that often meant having the families of perpetrators financially on the hook). But during the Third Reich, it was used to collectively punish families, and for example, if a soldier was deemed to be defeatist or critical of Hitler, his entire family (including young children) were often arrested and executed.
Mod
This story of 3 orphan siblings evacuated from London during WWII is my feel-good children's book of the year! I loved this story and gave it 5 stars. The characters were relatable, the plot was interesting, and the ending was terrific, although the three children faced several obstacles in the way to their happy ending. In the small village where the 3 children are billeted, they are able to visit the local lending library almost daily. At the end of the story, the author lists 16 books that the children read during the course of the story.
Mod
The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler by John Hendrix
This book is best for high school students and older. Excellent overview of Bonhoeffer's involvement in the German resistance and his time as a double agent--pretending to spy for the Nazis while actually spying for the resistance. This book does a great job of showing that not all German people marched in lockstep with Hitler's ideals. In fact, many of his own generals thought he was insane. As far as the text is concerned, some of the handwritten print is difficult to read without a magnifying glass. The extensive illustrations extend the story line with extra details. The author's note states that he had to leave many details out for the sake of brevity, but included a bibliography of other books about Bonhoeffer, Hitler, and World War II.
The Strength of These Arms: Life in the Slave Quarters
A children's book about the small, domestic ways enslaved people resisted. I thought I had read everything about slavery when this was published in 1997 but I was in college then and somehow missed it. It must not have been sold at the National Museum of American History, which is VERY interesting. The subject matter is fascinating and not something I knew about until graduate school-decades after this book was published.
It is illustrated with photos from various museums around the south. The author includes a list of sources to learn more and that's the only majorly problematical thing with it because I know for a fact some of those sources are outdated. No problem. I can give you a bibliography of adult sources on enslaved women's resistance... if I still have it. Be aware the library copy of the book was published back in 1997 and uses the terms slave and master instead of enslaved people and enslaver which is now the culturally accepted terminology. Well worth a read though, even if it is a bit older.
I picked up a copy of Spies, Soldiers, Couriers, and Saboteurs: Women of the American Revolution
at the Paul Revere House in Boston. It's a slim non-ficiton book aimed at middle grade readers who need to know a little something about the American Revolution. This book is all about the women of the Revolutionary War! It would have been right up my alley as a kid and I would have loved these narrative profiles. However, as an adult reader post-2020, I had a few tiny quibbles with it. I think this book will pass muster with Gov. DeSantis (FL), Gov. Abbott (TX), Gov. Youngkin (VA) and the other "anti-CRT" idiots. There's ONE instance of sexism where a woman is told she can't entlist because they don't take women. Even the one story about a Black woman is super positive. She frees her enslaver from being hanged as a traitor (the author uses the outdated term "master") and he rewards her with freedom. She continued to care for him for the rest of his life and in turn, his family continued to care for her for the rest of her life. It's unclear whether she was in actuality granted freedom. Wiki says she was freed but the entire story was passed down through oral tradition so no one knows if it was even true. The book does not include a bibliography or works consulted, which it should because the profiles contain imagined dialogue and thoughts/feelings.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Mod
And yes, History Smashers: Christopher Columbus and the Taino People is a five star book for me, and I love how coauthors Kate Messner and Taino scholar José Barreiro manage to pretty well totally trounce and discredit Christopher Columbus and burst the bubble of those foolish enough to still venerate and in any way praise him. Highly recommended!
I really liked the Horrible Histories series by Terry Deary. The Rotten Romans was a bit gory for me but interesting as my dad will swear he's a direct descendant of the Romans (maybe actually a Roman army archer?) and my mom has some British heritage. This series will appeal to middle school aged boys 10 or 11+ and some girls who like silly, irreverent history books. The author addresses the kid audience directly and basically states history class is boring and here's a more interesting way of studying what your teacher will quiz you on. I thought it would be fun for my nephews to learn about London before their vacation this summer.
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Can you elaborate on the history smashing rumors in the Mayflower book? I have a different perspective since I live so close and know the story. We use Wampanoag words on a daily basis and every town has a place named for Massasoit, his son King Philip or Metacomet.
Mod
I do not want to list all the smashed history in detail (but if you need more, just send me a message). Kate Messner points out important pieces of information such as that the English separatists first tried to unsuccessfully settle in Holland, that even though they were anti Catholic the separatists certainly had no qualms making use of the Catholic Doctrine of Discovery and that religious freedom thus only pertained to them and not others and definitely not to the Wampanoag. I also like how Messner points out that first person accounts provide lots of experienced scenarios but also can and do reflect the authors’ attitudes which can be dated, stereotyped etc.
Mod
Manybooks wrote: "English separatists first tried to unsuccessfully settle in Holland, that even though they were anti Catholic the separatists certainly had no qualms making use of the Catholic Doctrine of Discovery and that religious freedom thus only pertained to them and not others and definitely not to the Wampanoag. They weren't seeking religious freedom. They were seeking a utopian society where they would be free to practice their own brand of Christianity. Most of them weren't even separatists. I hope she mentions THAT myth and the fact that the majority of those who were died that first winter. It's hard to know who was a Saint and who was a Stranger.
It's also a myth that they brought disease with them. The disease that wiped out the natives was brought earlier by European fishermen. We don't know what it was but some kind of flu like illness where people were fine one minute and dropping dead the next.
It's also a myth that the Wampanoag lived in a virgin forest in peaceful harmony. They had enemies and they were in contact with the Virginia Indians in Jamestown. The Wampanoag still fighting the Narragansett for recognition and land claims. Massasoit may have wanted and needed the English help and their trade goods. Until his death, Massasoit and the English had a friendly alliance. The Puritans and second generation Plimoth colonists were the "evil colonizers"
Everything anyone needs to know is at Plimoth Patuxet. I thought about going up there this weekend but I don't want to get out of bed early enough for such a long trip. If you can't make the trip, check out their excellent website.
https://plimoth.org/
and also the Pilgrim Hall Museum which used to be about the Pilgrims but now works with the Wampanoag community to tell a more complete story about the region.
Hopefully when the weather warms up more we can get up there.
Mod
She basically mentions most of that including that the Wampanoag were wiped out by a disease brought over by European fishermen. I do find it kind of silly that they originally went to the Netherlands because there was more religious freedom there but then left because there was obviously too much religious freedom for them and they could not handle Dutch culture.
They say they left Holland because their children were growing up speaking Dutch and not English and also political tensions with Spain. There was also apparently economic motivation.
The Mayflower was headed to Virginia, along the Hudson River, what is now upstate New York, Dutch territory.
https://www.mayflower400uk.org/educat....
My ancestors were apparently on the Speedwell until that leaked and everyone crowded on the Mayflower.
Mod
There was also apparently economic motivation.
The Mayflo..."
I enjoyed the book and the rather irreverent attitude, but I admit that the book is likely not for everyone.
Mod
Interesting article on Laura Secord and which points out that Laura Secord was IN NO WAY a traitor, since after marrying a Loyalist and becoming a British subject she had no more affiliation to the USA and thus totally did the right and the honourable thing warning the British of an impending attack by the USA (and yes, American soldiers had basically invaded her home and taken her and her family hostage, so shame on them in every way).
https://www.berkshireeagle.com/news/l...
Mod
Now before I read Janet Lunn’s picture book Laura Secord: A Story of Courage, I decided to do a bit of supplemental online research (because I kind of wanted to know what the general attitude towards Laura Secord as a Canadian/British heroine of the War of 1812 is). And yes, I am indeed more than a bit frustrated and in fact rather HUGELY rolling my eyes that on some American websites, Laura Secord is actually being portrayed not only as someone on the “wrong” side of the conflict (which I can albeit rather grudgingly accept from a United States perspective) but also as an individual supposedly needing to be considered as a seditious traitor (and this simply because Laura Secord just happened to have been born in Massachusetts).
But sorry, you frigging ignoramuses par excellence, considering that Laura Secord during the War of 1812 had been living in Upper Canada (in what is now the province of Ontario) for more than thirty years, was happily married to a Loyalist, was considered to be British and even more importantly also now totally saw herself as a British subject, her, Laura Secord listening in on a group of opinionated and bullying American soldiers who had callously taken over (read INVADED) the Secords' Upper Canada Niagara area home and then walking many miles to let the British know of an upcoming secretive American raid, this ABSOLUTELY WAS NOT TREASON IN ANY WAY but in my not at all humble opinion rather the heroic actions of an oppressed and invaded resident of Upper Canada doing what she could to thwart the Americans trying to subjugate and control (to annex) what is now Canada. For honestly, Laura Secord should only be considered a traitor if she had still been still living in the USA during the War of 1812 (which she clearly was not) or if she was in 1812 still considered to be American (which she obviously also was not). And thus, those (mostly American and hugely stupid and ignorant) websites which are trying to portray Laura Secord and her hard and dangerous walk to alert the British of a surprise USA attack (and of which she heard in her own callously taken over by United States soldiers Niagara region home) as being traitorous are at best naively and putridly dangerously nationalistic and majorly, annoyingly historically wrong, wrong, wrong.
And with regard to the actual book itself, as an introduction to Laura Secord’s life and times for the so-called picture book crowd Laura Secord: A Story of Courage is definitely quite textually dense and might also be a bit overwhelming if read aloud in one session (and not to mention that Maxwell Newhouse’s accompanying artwork often shows so much visual detail that it in my opinion might possibly distract from Janet Lunn’s printed words). So yes, I do in fact think that Laura Secord: A Story of Courage would likely work better if divided into smaller chunks, and this of course also for independent reading if the potential reader is younger than nine or so. But that having been said, Janet Lunn’s writing is descriptively delightful and that she is thankfully with Laura Secord: A Story of Courage showing exactly how very much heroic Laura Secord was, that she was brave, resourceful and also more than willing to court the many dangers she would be facing warning the British about the plans she had overheard from the mouths of the belligerent American soldiers who had occupied her family’s home, indeed, this both warms my heart and has definitely made Laura Secord: A Story of Courage into very much an enjoyable personal reading experience, with the only reason why Laura Secord: A Story of Courage is a four and not a five star rating for me being that considering how Laura Secord’s story is historical reality, I do think that Janet Lunn should be including a bibliography with suggestions for further reading and research in Laura Secord: A Story of Courage.
Mod
Love how in this true story, the Patriot is actually and completely the utter and horrid villain.
In this lushly illustrated, emotionally wrenching and true picture book tale of the American Revolution, in Charlotte, author Janet Lunn tells the story of young Charlotte Haines, who has to face one of the cruel realities of war, family division, and how different, conflicting ideals and philosophies can not only tear families apart, but can turn naturally stubborn, unbending individuals into vile and loathsomely disgusting tyrants.
Charlotte is ten years old and lives in New York City. It is the year 1783 and she faces a major, emotionally wrenching dilemma. Her father, who supports the American Revolution has forbidden his daughter from even speaking with her uncle, aunt and beloved cousins Betsy and Sally because his brother is a Loyalist. When Charlotte (with total justification in my not at all humble opinion), rebels against her tyrannical and unreasonable father and visits her relatives to say goodbye before they are to leave for exile in Nova Scotia, her father cruelly and disgustingly disowns his daughter, turning her out of the house. Charlotte returns to her relatives' home and when neither her stubborn, obstinate father nor her meek and sadly weakly useless mother relent, her uncle's family takes Charlotte along to Nova Scotia. Charlotte never sees her family again, but in a brief afterword, Janet Lunn presents that Charlotte Haines lived a happy and productive life in Nova Scotia and that one of her many grandchildren was Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley, premier of New Brunswick and one of the Fathers of Confederation (Canadian Confederation of course and with a really wonderful sense of irony).
Janet Lunn's Charlotte is an engaging, emotionally gut-wrenching, heartbreaking story, very different from the usual Revolutionary War tales, where children are often presented as performing quiet acts of bravery for the Patriot cause. And Charlotte actually turns this completely upside-down and on its side, showing a situation and events where the American Patriot is clearly not the hero, but in ALL ways the absolute and totally disgustingly horrid villain. I have found myself completely enveloped by and drawn into Lunn's narrative, and so angry and livid at Charlotte's tyrannical father (and totally spineless mother) that even days after first reading Charlotte, I was still experiencing trouble writing a review that was coherent and not simply a ranting tirade against Charlotte's parents. And I actually had not only tears of sympathy and empathy, but tears of absolute rage and anger in my eyes, and I still cannot believe that Charlotte's father would disown his daughter for simply daring to speak to her uncle and his family one last time (and that Charlotte's mother and older brother never even remotely questioned the father's unreasonableness and cruelty, that they never stood up for Charlotte, that they basically disowned her as well, and yes, total and utter shame on them ALL forever). It boggles the mind that Charlotte's father would call his own daughter a traitor, that he would disown her and reject her for a single and small act of supposed disobedience. In fact, I very much consider Charlotte's father as not only a stubborn, unreasonable tyrant, but somewhat of a hypocrite as well, being much more akin to the monarch (to King George III of England) whom he so despises than the Patriot he considers himself to be. However, while Charlotte is understandably shaken and dismayed at having lost her family, she is likely far better off with her uncle's family, she is likely better off having escaped from her father's cruelty (and from her mother's meek acceptance of her husband's tyranny).
Now I would consider Charlotte suitable for children above the ages of seven or eight. Janet Lunn's featured text is extensive, but actually not overly difficult and looks accessible to and for even younger children if one goes by Lunn's writing style and word usage alone. However, very young children might be both frightened and upset that a young girl could be banished from not only her home (her family), but her country because of a single, seemingly small act of disobedience. And yes, there is also much background information and historical details that would likely need to be discussed regarding Charlotte, such as the fact that both the patriots and those loyal to the Kind of England obviously had slaves (that slavery was therefore not just something that occurred in the Southern colonies of the future United States of America). Older children might still find Charlotte's punishment and fate a shock, but will likely know more about the period and benefit from reading Charlotte and discussing both it and the historical background.
Now Brian Deines' accompanying illustrations for Charlotte are lush and luminous, realistically capturing the essence of upper-middle class 18th century colonial America; they provide a fitting visual complement to and for Janet Lunn's text and could even be of use for more detailed discussions and presentations on topics such as typical 18th century furniture, the clothing worn at the time, what 18th century colonial buildings looked like etc. However, the faces of Deines' human figures do seem to and for me as being rather devoid of emotional intensity; they are all and sundry rather similar in feature and expression, making them appear rather stilted and cardboard-like at times. The illustrations (paintings) Brian Deines uses for Charlotte do give the reader (or listener) a wonderful sense of historic authenticity, but the human figures seem so much alike in their facial features that it sometimes feels as though they are just part of the general surroundings.
And finally, I really do wish that Janet Lunn would provide a more detailed author's note, including suggestions for further reading. It certainly would make using Charlotte in a classroom setting more of a teaching and learning tool, but more importantly, having biographical sources readily at hand might also be of benefit if faced with individuals who doubt the veracity of the story, who might wish to claim that Charlotte could not be a true story because all American Patriots would automatically be shining examples, would automatically be heroic and praiseworthy.
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In 1946, hair salon owner and successful businesswoman Viola Desmond’s car broke down in the town of New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, Canada. To pass the time while it was being fixed, she decided to go the the movies, only to be told that she had to move from her main floor seat to the balcony (to the cheaper seats), since the theatre was racially segregated and as an African Canadian woman, Viola Desmond was sadly and majorly infuriatingly not permitted to sit with the WASP, with the White Anglo Saxon Protestant movie theatre patrons. Desmond refused to move, was arrested, dragged out of the theatre, ended up spending the night in jail, was tried and convicted the next morning without proper legal representation and forced to pay a for the 1940s very large and offensively punishing twenty dollar fine. Her story and ensuing (albeit unsuccessful) legal battle to get the charges reversed angered and inspired Nova Scotia's African Canadian community and became the catalyst for many large-scale protests that eventually resulted in racial segregation becoming illegal in Nova Scotia in the late 1950s (but it should be noted and pointed out that although there was a posthumous apology and pardon issued to Viola Desmond by the Nova Scotia government in 2010, she herself died unpardoned in 1965 and basically with a criminal record for doing nothing more than insisting on her basic human rights).
Now with their 2010 picture book about Viola Desmond's ordeal and bravery, with Viola Desmond Won't Be Budged! Jody Nyasha Warner textually and Richard Rudnicki visually render a truly marvellous marriage of text and image, presenting to the so-called picture book crowd much to consider, to read about, to listen to and also most definitely and importantly to discuss with the adults in their lives, with parents, librarians, teachers etc. (and indeed, also showing both verbally and illustratively that racial segregation was not just a USA based issue, that pretty much the same types of issues and atrocities were happening in much of Canada as well). And even though I personally speaking do find Rudnicki's artwork for Viola Desmond Won't Be Budged! a bit too garishly hued for my personal aesthetics, his pictures are indeed nicely and successfully both mirroring and sometimes also expanding on Warner's words (such as not only vividly showing Viola Desmond's facial emotions, her anger and her justifiable outrage at being arrested for basically NOTHING but also presenting details of 1940 Canadian fashion and architectural styles), so that Richard Rudnicki's pictures and Jody Nyasha Warner's delightful oral storytelling like voice invites us to come in and to listen, to see what happens and how Viola Desmond becomes an inspiration to and for multitudes (and with my only pretty much insignificantly minor complaint being that in particular my inner child kind of wishes that Viola Desmond Won't Be Budged! would feature Viola Desmond telling her own story in a first person narrative instead of having an anonymous even if delightfully personable narrator tell us all about Viola Desmond and her run in with ridiculous and sillily nasty racial tension and segregation in the third person).
Five pretty much solid stars for the main textual and pictorial body of Viola Desmond Won't Be Budged! (and as such also most highly recommended, and that I do hope Viola Desmond Won't Be Budged! will never be on banned book lists, although I would also and sadly not be at all surprised if this were to be the case), but lowered to four stars because while I personally have found Jody Nyasha Warner's supplemental information on African Canadian history both interesting and very much eye-opening, the minuscule font size gives me eye strain and a headache (and not to mention that the extra details are in my humble opinion also much too advanced and textually dense for the intended audience, for young readers and listeners between the ages to six to nine or ten and that there also should be a bibliography with suggestions for further reading provided in and for Viola Desmond Won't Be Budged!).
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Roch Carrier's 1968 novella La Guerre, Yes Sir! (well, at least I personally do consider La Guerre, Yes Sir! to be a novella) was translated from its original French in 1970 by Sheila Fishman (and yes, I did in fact read both the original and the English translation simultaneously for grade twelve French in 1985).
Now basically but brilliantly, Carrier (and of course by extension Fishman as well), they put with La Guerre, Yes Sir! the tensions between French and English Canada under the magnifying glass, under the lens, where the recurring and constant conflicts and bones of contention are not only based on language, but also on religion, culture and historical resentment (by means of a small Quebec village during World War II, with La Guerre, Yes Sir! thus also taking place during conscription, which historically was particularly unpopular in Quebec, since for the vast majority of Quebecois, WWII was Britain's and Europe's conflict and not their own). So with the above mentioned conscription as the backdrop, La Guerre, Yes Sir! focuses on a Quebec family whose son has just been killed in the war and a troupe of English soldiers, or rather les maudits Anglais (the goddamned English) as they are referred to by the villagers (who represent Quebec in general) bring the body to the parents’ kitchen for the wake, making this young man the first war casualty of the village to be repatriated. And what Roch Carrier has textually ensuing in La Guerre, Yes Sir! is a delightful and immensely readable mix of tears, laughs, fists, tourtiere, and cider, a fun story to a point, but La Guerre, Yes Sir! is most definitely a tale both entertaining and thought-provoking, both deeply painful and deeply humorous, and covering issues regarding French and English Canada that are as relevant today as they were in 1968.
Finally, I also have to say that Sheila Fischman has done a simply superb job translating Roch Carrier's French text, and I totally appreciate that she has made the decision to leave the humorous prayers the villagers make and the Roman Catholicism based curse words, the many religious themed profanities in French, because indeed, trying to render these into English would in my humble opinion sound at best strangely unnatural and artificial. And La Guerre, Yes Sir! is in fact the heading of both Roch Carrier's original French language story and also of Sheila Fishman's translation, and I sure am glad of that, since the book title itself is already meant to highlight the linguistic divide between English and French Canada and to change this would be to take away part of the fundamental raison d’être of the novel. And therefore, and wonderfully, Sheila Fishman's translation of La Guerre, Yes Sir! thus reads not really like a translation, but more like story in and of itself, and yes, that makes for a totally brilliant textual rendering and also yet another reason why my rating for La Guerre, Yes Sir! is solidly and shiningly five stars (and that I also absolutely do recommend both Roch Carrier's original and Sheila Fishman's translation equally).
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For me and also probably first and foremost, Hugh MacLennan’s 1945 novel Two Solitudes is basically the author's attempt to bring together harmoniously the main two cultural and linguistic communities in Canada, namely French Canadians and English Canadians, and with MacLennan also and abundantly clearly textually demonstrating that both the Francophones and the Anglophones are most definitely necessary for this balance to occur, but also and very much importantly, that neither group is somehow to be seen as inherently superior to the other either (which for me is kind of avant garde even now, even in 2023, as far too many books of both fiction and non fiction regarding the French and English Canada debate do tend to place one group rather above the other).
And in my opinion, MacLennan balanced striving for a solution and a reconciliation is clearly shown in Two Solitudes by both the Francophones and the Anglophones being depicted and described as having not only their good but also their less than stellar qualities, both their positives and their negatives (with the fact of the matter that Hugh MacLennan as an Anglophone author from Grace Bay, Nova Scotia truly does not ever try to show in Two Solitudes the English Canadians as automatically glowing, as beyond contempt and criticism and French Canadians as inherently problematic and as simpletons, as total religious and cultural backwaters just by their birth, by their culture and their religion, I do most definitely and warmly appreciate this immensely and in particular with a novel penned in 1945).
But whether Hugh MacLennan thinks that his hope for a lasting harmony between French and English Canada is actually something that is more than just a fond dream and is in fact achievable, this is (at least for me) pretty much as open and as much a so-called cliff hanger as the ending of Two Solitudes. Because indeed, truly, Two Solitudes really does in my humble opinion seem to conclude with more questions than answers provided by MacLennan with a bit of hope for Canada's future perhaps (both generally and also more specifically regarding the characters of Paul, Heather and their families), but with even Paul and Heather's joint future as a married couple totally uncertain, since with Paul going to enlist for fighting in WWII, his own actual survival is of course not at all a forgone conclusion but actually a huge question mark (with maybe some hope of the two solitudes of Canada finally meeting and combining harmoniously given to us as readers by Hugh MacLennan that this is also not necessarily going to be the outcome either or perhaps only a partial success).
Oh and furthermore, what I have also noticed with Two Solitudes is that even how the novel is divided up into four very much distinct parts (of different lengths but each of similar if not in fact equal thematic, of equal textual significance and importance), this very much structurally already reveals MacLennan's constant effort to establish and maintain a balance between the two communities, between Canadian Francophones and Anglophones. For most certainly, if one reads between the lines, how Hugh MacLennan has penned (and has set up) Two Solitudes, for me and specifically signifies that McLennan sees the history of Quebec and of Quebecois culture/language being in every way and manner as important as the history, culture and language of English Canada (and that this is indeed majorly and absolutely necessary if there ever is to be a pan-Canadian balance and harmony, and which also makes the first part of Two Solitudes the longest and the most detailed, as there is just so much information and detail in particular regarding Quebec society and such that needs telling and also explaining for everyone).
Now I originally read Two Solitudes in the spring of 1984, in grade eleven English and as part of a year-long perusal of mostly Canadian literature. And it is interesting to realise that what I totally textually adored as a seventeen year old is not really so much what I most appreciate and enjoy regarding Two Solitudes in 2023. For in 1984, I found Hugh MacLennan's often really meticulous and "information dropping" historical, political and economic facts and details both readable and also engaging, at least compared to the very dry Canadian history and Canadian literature textbook we were also using in class (and no, I actually do not recall the title) but conversely was rather bored with MacLennan's landscape descriptions and totally despised the open ending for Two Solitudes and that Paul and Heather's future was a huge and big question that never would textually receive an answer. But today, the exact opposite has in fact occurred for me regarding Two Solitudes, with my older adult reading self absolutely adoring MacLennan's .verbal landscapes, totally appreciating the open ending of Two Solitudes but also finding myself feeling rather preached at and being relentlessly and teacherly shown and almost accosted with waves upon waves of Canadiana and Canadian history, economics and so on and so on, leaving me with Two Solitudes as appreciating and even enjoying what Hugh MacLennan has written, but that in particular some of the rather heavy duty historical information encountered has kind of at times made Two Solitudes a trifle tedious for me in 2023.
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So yes, that it has taken me almost a month to peruse Katherine Morrison's Canadians Are Not Americans: Myths and Literary Traditions actually has NOTHING AT ALL to do with me perhaps getting bogged down by and frustrated with Morrison's presented text, but only with the fact that I am taking an online university graduate level course on how Canadians see and approach Americans and of course also on how Canadians compare and contrast culture, literature and mythology wise to Americans, and that we have been using Canadians Are Not Americans: Myths and Literary Traditions as our main required textbook and therefore meticulously going through Morrison's nine presented chapters and discussing whether we agree with her assessments and viewpoints (and also considering and debating whether the author, whether Katherine Morrison might actually also be lacking a bit in parts of her text, whether there is or should be more to the story of the USA and Canada compared and contrasted than is featured in Canadians Are Not Americans: Myths and Literary Traditions).
And indeed, while basically ALL of us students (as well as the professor) are in general agreement (and positively so) with how Katherine Morrison in Canadians Are Not Americans: Myths and Literary Traditions contrasts and compares Americans and Canadians on a north/south trajectory, with the border of course being the main caesura, a sizeable minority (with both myself and the professor included) do think that Katherine Morrison should also have a section included in Canadians Are Not Americans: Myths and Literary Traditions concerning that Canada and the USA (due to their huge areas, due to their immense sizes) are also very much regional countries and that for instance Canadians who live in the Maritime provinces often have much more in common with New Englanders, that the American Midwest is attitude wise very close to the Canadian prairie provinces and that coastal British Columbians are often akin in outlook and viewpoints to coastal Washington State, Oregon and California (that yes, there is thus not simply a difference between Americans and Canadians running from north to south, but also quite a lot of, quite many similarities and differences running from east to west, and that sadly, Katherine Morrison does not really ever consider this in Canadians Are Not Americans: Myths and Literary Traditions, and indeed, that this has for the professor, for me and for some of my fellow students kind of made Canadians Are Not Americans: Myths and Literary Traditions just a trifle lacking and in need of a bit of expansion with regard to that one area of consideration).
But although due to the above mentioned bone of reading contention, my final rating for Canadians Are Not Americans: Myths and Literary Traditions is thus only three stars (since I really do think that thematically, there is something thematically missing that Katherine Morrison really should be including and expanding upon), I still consider that Canadians Are Not Americans: Myths and Literary Traditions generally features a very good and solidly researched and analysed text and one that I would also highly recommend but certainly more for academic than for pleasure reading. For yes, Canadians Are Not Americans: Myths and Literary Traditions is most definitely pretty densely penned (with a very academic in nature set-up for each chapter that features a mini introduction, a main textual body, a conclusion and finally the required notes, and of course also an expansive and much detailed bibliography at the end of Canadians Are Not Americans: Myths and Literary Traditions), with Canadians Are Not Americans: Myths and Literary Traditions therefore being basically and primarily an educational and teaching, learning oriented university/college textbook, which is actually to be expected. And I for one have both appreciated and enjoyed both the way Katherine Morrison has physically shown her presented text on paper in Canadians Are Not Americans: Myths and Literary Traditions and indeed that Morrison's words are not overly simplistic but are at the same time also not overly difficult and convoluted either, that as a reader, I do not have to possess an advanced university degree in sociology, literature or history in order to easily read and understand Canadians Are Not Americans: Myths and Literary Traditions but that Canadians Are Not Americans: Myths and Literary Traditions is thus and of course also not a quick snd easy read but one that does require perseverance and also a bit of analysis, thought and not just taking everything Katherine Morrison has textually shown as the unassailable truth.
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So what really happened to Russian princess Anastasia Romanov? Did she really as has often been romantically and hopefully suggested escape the carnage of her family's politically motivated slaughter in post WWI Russia? Where was Egyptian Pharaoh Queen Hatshepsut buried? What happened to the missing plane, Star Dust? These and six more mysteries of the past, of both not so recent and more recent history are answered in Case Closed?: Nine Mysteries Unlocked by Modern Science (which is suitable for readers from about the age of eight or so onwards and in my humble opinion presents an engagingly fun as well as hugely interesting and educational textual and visual combination of archaeology, history and scientific investigation penned by Susan Hughes and illustrated by Michael Wandelmaier).
Now each section of Case Closed?: Nine Mysteries Unlocked by Modern Science commences with a brief teaser to pique reading interest, with Hughes after said teaser then supplying both the background and the necessary facts, figures etc. on and about the featured mystery (one per chapter) describing in suitably extensive and also intensive enough detail (but also not ever with and in a writing style too complicated and too scientifically, archaeologically difficult for the recommended age group, for young readers to easily grasp and comprehend) how scientists, archeologists etc. have worked together (collectively) to find clues and to solve the chapter's featured and described question, also (appreciatively) including solidly researched and scientifically sound opinions from so-called experts in the field, photographs and maps. And yes, additional information in Case Closed?: Nine Mysteries Unlocked by Modern Science is equally very nicely being visually supplied via Wandelmaier's accompanying illustrations, which although a bit too aesthetically comic book like for my personal artistic tastes most definitely and delightfully do a very good and even pretty much perfect job both mirroring what Susan Hughes's printed words are providing and also expending on her text (especially with regard to buildings and history in general), and with the final heading for each chapter in Case Closed?: Nine Mysteries Unlocked by Modern Science recapping the investigation and its conclusions, as well as pointing out if there are still unanswered queries (and with some sections of Case Closed?: Nine Mysteries Unlocked by Modern Science also briefly alluding to similar and related mysteries, so that for example in the chapter on Anastasia Romanov, the Princes in the Tower of London are also mentioned).
Finally, Case Closed?: Nine Mysteries Unlocked by Modern Science shows a nicely versatile mix of subjects (with some of these well-known and others much more obscure), a really good middle grade introduction to the nine featured mysteries in and of themselves but also to the way different disciplines can and often even must work together to get adequate and solid results, and with the only reason why for me Case Closed?: Nine Mysteries Unlocked by Modern Science is four and not five stars being that I do find it rather frustrating and annoying that Susan Hughes has chosen not to provide footnotes/endnotes (has not acknowledged her sources) and also includes no books and/or websites for further reading and study, that Case Closed?: Nine Mysteries Unlocked by Modern Science actually has no bibliographical materials at all (and which I absolutely neither understand nor am willing to accept without lowering my star rating).
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Well (and after doing a bit of online research), quite a number of reviews for Wayne Vansant's 2014 The Red Baron: The Graphic History of Richthofen's Flying Circus and the Air War in WWI seem to claim that having Vansant start his graphic novel neither with Manfred von Richthofen's biographical background and his life as a member of the German nobility (and with the resulting privileges of birth and wealth, including a totally weird and all encompassing love of hunting, of shooting and killing wildlife) nor with him switching from the cavalry (from combat on horseback) to the air service (to combat via airplanes) but rather with an account of what was the German pilot’s 11th victory, with his eleventh "kill" (showing textually and also of course considering that The Red Baron: The Graphic History of Richthofen's Flying Circus and the Air War in WWI is a graphic novel visually seven pages depicting in really meticulous and exaggerated detail the aerial duel between Manfred von Richthofen in an Albatross and British major Lanoe G. Hawker flying a De Havilland D.H. 2 and resulting in the Victoria Cross winning Harper's death), and that this sequence (following the turns and dives of two skilled pilots and with von Richthofen emerging victorious and Hawker ending up deceased but "respected" in death) is supposedly an entertaining and engagingly ripping account of high adventure which effectively draws readers into The Red Baron: The Graphic History of Richthofen's Flying Circus and the Air War in WWI and makes us hungry for and wanting more, more, more of the same.
But sorry, and for me both personally and emotionally, I have in fact found that opening sequence of The Red Baron: The Graphic History of Richthofen's Flying Circus and the Air War in WWI rather majorly nauseating and basically (in my humble opinion) more a case of Wayne Vansant's text and accompanying cartoon like artwork inappropriately celebrating and feting death, destruction and making WWI air combats seem like something exciting and entertaining and the pilots (German, French and British) as glorious and as knights in their proverbially shining armour (and not as what they in my opinion basically ALWAYS were, proverbial cannon fodder for the glory of European generals and monarchs, since for me, WWI basically and totally shows how the family squabbles between the inbred and ridiculous crowned heads of Europe, of especially Wilhelm II of Germany, George V of England and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia not only caused massive death and pain but also ushered in WWII by making monsters like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini appealing in the aftermath, and not to mention the Russian Revolution and emergence and power of Leninism and later Stalinism).
Therefore, although with The Red Baron: The Graphic History of Richthofen's Flying Circus and the Air War in WWI Wayne Vansant does certainly provide a for the most part factual and realistic account of Manfred von Richthofen's life (and his death) and that Vansant fortunately does not ever try to depict and write about the German WWI pilots as horrible, as monsters and the French, British and American pilots as shiningly angelic (or indeed vice versa), Wayne Vansant's rather positive (and also uncritical regarding war in general) textual stance towards WWI aerial combat, this does hugely bother me and also makes me quite disappointed and only able to give a very low and grudging three star rating for The Red Baron: The Graphic History of Richthofen's Flying Circus and the Air War in WWI (and that my three stars are three and not two stars solely because the information Wayne Vansant provides on French, British and German WWI airplanes is interesting and the list of titles for further reading much appreciated, but that for me and to me The Red Baron: The Graphic History of Richthofen's Flying Circus and the Air War in WWI too much glorifies and celebrates WWI and WWI flying aces where Wayne Vansant really should be casting a critical eye on this and to consider WWI and war in general as wantonly destructive and a strange cult of celebrating death and mayhem).
And finally, regarding the illustrations for The Red Baron: The Graphic History of Richthofen's Flying Circus and the Air War in WWI (and as a person of German background who is short, has green eyes and dark brown hair), I am honestly also quite visually annoyed and frustrated that basically ALL of the German WWI flying aces encountered in The Red Baron: The Graphic History of Richthofen's Flying Circus and the Air War in WWI are depicted, are drawn by Wayne Vansant as supposedly being tall and with blond hair. For come on, that really and problematically kind of buys into Adolf Hitler and the the Nazi's concept of us Germans supposedly being some kind of a superior race of tall and blond haired individuals, which is not only horrid in and of itself and a huge part of vile and hateful National Socialist ideology (including the Holocaust) but is also totally scientifically and genetically ignorant and erroneous in so many ways, since the blond and tall German "ideal" of Adolf Hitler actually pertains much more to Scandinavia than to Germany (except to an extent in pats of Northern Germany), and yes, I really wish that Wayne Vansant would not be perpetuating that ridiculously silly and dangerous myth with his otherwise pretty decent and realistic artwork in The Red Baron: The Graphic History of Richthofen's Flying Circus and the Air War in WWI.
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If I were totally into graphic novels as a genre (and which if truth be told, I really am not), I would definitely be giving Alte Zachen / Old Things (which is on the long list for the 2023 Kate Greenaway Medal) a full five stars. And yes, and truly, the ONLY reason for my rating of Alte Zachen / Old Things being four stars (and not yet five) is simply that the part of me who prefers and has always preferred written words to illustrations kind of wanted a bit more of this and that I sometimes did get a trifle annoyed at the many picture sequences that were entirely wordless, but well, not enough so to not majorly enjoy and love Alte Zachen / Old Things and to consider it as pretty wonderful and spectacular both textually and equally so illustratively (that for a graphic novel, Alte Zachen / Old Things is probably almost perfect, but that I personally still want and need quite a bit more written text).
But indeed, the combination of author Ziggy Hanaor's presented narrative and illustrator Benjamin Phillips' accompanying artwork for Alte Zachen / Old Things, it is both successful and spectacular, wonderful, with Phillips' illustrations coming across as mutedly colourful, expressive and delightfully descriptive and with Hanaor in Alte Zachen / Old Things telling an engaging, heartwarming (but sometimes also necessarily heartbreaking) and at times even quietly humorous story of Jewish identity, of memory (and of course also of the Holocaust since the grandmother, since Bubbe Rosa recalls escaping from Nazi Germany and the tattoos of the Concentration Camps), of generational divides, of growing old not all that gracefully and gratefully, but also, wonderfully, of a modern and contemporary grandson who is both loving and patient with his cantankerously opinionated grandmother (with his Bubbe) but also and delightfully with him, with Benjamin not just letting Rosa get away with everything either, that when in Alte Zachen / Old Things on their trek through Brooklyn in order to purchase the ingredients for a Friday night Shabbat dinner, Bubbe Rosa gives too many nasty asides and unwelcome opinions and commentaries, Benji often (and with justification) calls her out for this and does not just stay quiet and in the background without any criticism simply because she is the elder and he is the grandson (and which really does totally make me smile).
And furthermore, that the story of Bubbe Rosa's cantankerousness in Alte Zachen / Old Things is not (at least in my opinion) portrayed by Ziggy Hanaor as being only and solely something Jewish, but first and foremost as related to getting older in general and not being all that willing and able to accept societal changes and modern, contemporary life, this for me is both lovely and also very much personally relatable as well I may add. Because Bubba Rosa and how she in Alte Zachen / Old Things on her shopping trip through Brooklyn with her grandson has negative opinions about all and sundry and repeatedly lambasts the so-called youth of today for being lazy, for not being into learning, for dressing strangely etc., this certainly reminds me of my maternal grandmother, of my Omi, who would often both act and talk in pretty much the same manner when I accompanied her on shopping excursions (and with the fact that Omi's comments were uttered in German really being the only major difference, with me also feeling as embarrassed as Benji but unfortunately not really ever daring to contradict and to call out my Omi like Benji so wonderfully and delightfully does with his Bubbe Rosa in Alte Zachen / Old Things).
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The 2008 middle grade graphic novel No Girls Allowed: Tales of Daring Women Dressed as Men for Love, Freedom and Adventure (and in my opinion No Girls Allowed: Tales of Daring Women Dressed as Men for Love, Freedom and Adventure is probably most suitable for readers from about eight to ten years of age, as older audiences would likely want and also require a bit more textual substance and analysis, more presented and delivered historical and cultural information and that No Girls Allowed: Tales of Daring Women Dressed as Men for Love, Freedom and Adventure does for and to me deliver the basics but really not much more than that) is simply but also for the intended readership more than sufficiently educational and enlightening, with Susan Hughes' text and Willow Dawon's images in No Girls Allowed: Tales of Daring Women Dressed as Men for Love, Freedom and Adventure showcasing seven women (from ancient Egypt to the American Civil War, from 1470 BCE until the mid 1800s) who disguised themselves as men to live how they wanted but generally were not allowed to because of gender bias, slavery, religious bigotry and the like, namely Hatshepsut, Mu Lan, Alflhild, Esther Brandeau, James Barry, Ellen Craft and Sarah Rosetta Wakeman.
And I guess that No Girls Allowed: Tales of Daring Women Dressed as Men for Love, Freedom and Adventure is also and currently being banned or is increasingly being banned and/or restricted at the secondary school level in and by states like Texas, Florida, Alabama, Idaho, Utah etc. because freakily ignorant and dictatorial governors, school boards, special interest groups etc. seem to think and to believe that No Girls Allowed: Tales of Daring Women Dressed as Men for Love, Freedom and Adventure must because of the contents, themes and the wording of the book title primarily focus on and deal with with trans gender issues, and which in my not so humble opinion is actually not really the case regarding No Girls Allowed: Tales of Daring Women Dressed as Men for Love, Freedom and Adventure, and well, even if this were to be the case, sorry, but ALL book banning is ridiculous, dangerous and hugely, massively evil, and ALL book banners and those who support censorship and book banning are absolutely and totally the same, and yes, that especially pertains to politicians, to anyone who occupies positions of authority and to clearly Nazi inspired groups like Moms for Liberty and anyone supporting and in agreement with them and other groups akin and alike to them (oh and by the way, anyone claiming that No Girls Allowed: Tales of Daring Women Dressed as Men for Love, Freedom and Adventure should not be read and should be restricted because Susan Hughes does not actually make her featured stories into something inherently trans gender, yes, that is and would totally be majorly silly and ridiculously stupidly ignorant as well and hugely shameful I will add).
So at around ten pages maximum, each mini-biography regarding the seven women Susan Hughes presents in No Girls Allowed: Tales of Daring Women Dressed as Men for Love, Freedom and Adventure is of course pretty much and by textual necessity only a rather cursory glance at their lives and this also and of course means at the specific whys and hows of their decisions to disguise themselves as men (although from what I already knew about Hatshepsut, Mu Lan and Alflhild prior to encountering, prior to perusing No Girls Allowed: Tales of Daring Women Dressed as Men for Love, Freedom and Adventure and from my online research on Esther Brandeau, James Barry, Ellen Craft and Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, yes, what Susan Hughes textually shows and presents in No Girls Allowed: Tales of Daring Women Dressed as Men for Love, Freedom and Adventure, this is all generally and very much appreciatively factually correct, although I do think that Susan Hughes kind of misses an educational opportunity in No Girls Allowed: Tales of Daring Women Dressed as Men for Love, Freedom and Adventure not providing timelines and supplemental historical, cultural details and the like and only one book per showcased woman in her list of titles for further reading).
Finally, and indeed a bit unfortunately and frustratingly (but actually not enough for me to in fact in any way become majorly textually angered and annoyed), there does at times seem to be just a wee bit too much author speculation going on in No Girls Allowed: Tales of Daring Women Dressed as Men for Love, Freedom and Adventure and that Susan Hughes narrational flow can definitely be a trifle jumpy, but yes, generally speaking and with regard to the presented themes and contents Hughes provides, No Girls Allowed: Tales of Daring Women Dressed as Men for Love, Freedom and Adventure certainly and most assuredly is a wonderful textual introduction to Hatshepsut, Mu Lan, Alflhild, Esther Brandeau, James Barry, Ellen Craft and Sarah Rosetta Wakeman and to why and how they decided to dress as men. And indeed, the only reason why my rating for No Girls Allowed: Tales of Daring Women Dressed as Men for Love, Freedom and Adventure is but four stars is that while I do think Willow Dawson's accompanying comic book style artwork works pretty nicely with Susan Hughes' text, the entirely black and white colour scheme and that many of Dawson's human figures look not only similar but to and for my eyes and my aesthetics far too often rather physically ugly, yes, this kind of does bother and grate on me visually and thus also prevents me from rating No Girls Allowed: Tales of Daring Women Dressed as Men for Love, Freedom and Adventure with five stars.
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With her 2023 picture book biography Good Books for Bad Children: The Genius of Ursula Nordstorm Beth Kephart writes lyrically, ecstatically and indeed almost with a sense of delightful heroine worship and pride about legendary children's book editor Ursula Nordstrom, showing with not too many, with comparatively few but poignantly powerful words the highlights and also some of the lowlights of Nordstroms's life (and Ursula Nordstrom was editor-in-chief of juvenile books at Harper & Brothers/Harper & Row, is credited with presiding over a major transformation in children's literature in which morality tales increasingly gave way to works that instead appealed to children's imaginations/emotions and is in fact credited with publishing and also enthusiastically promoting American children's literature classics like Margaret Wise Brown's Goodnight Moon, Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends, Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, Louise Fitzhugh's Harriet the Spy, Crocket Johnson's Harold and the Purple Crayon, E.B. White's Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little to name a few).
And in Good Books for Bad Children: The Genius of Ursula Nordstorm, Nordstrom is shown both textually and illustratively as being a quiet, imaginative book loving only child who ends up at boarding school at the age of seven after her parents' divorce (an experience she later recreates in her only novel, in the middled grade school story The Secret Language). Wanting to attend college post graduation, but not having the necessary funds for this, Ursula Nordstrom instead finds a job (a career) at a publishing house, at Harper & Brothers, in the early 1930s (and upon transferring into the department for young readers as assistant to Ida Louise Raymond, upon Raymond's retirement, Ursula Nordstrom is promoted to run the department, and which of course means that she has the final say regarding which children's books are getting published by Harper & Brothers and later Harper & Row).
With illustrator Chloe Bristol’s lushly colourful but stylised and almost a bit Gothic in style accompanying artwork (and in particular the portraits, the pictures of people) delightfully visually mirroring and also amplifying the pensiveness of Beth Kephart’s featured text for Good Books for Bad Children: The Genius of Ursula Nordstorm, the general mood of both text and images is one of Ursula Nordstrom being shown as a rather solitary editing soldier bringing out the best in her troops, demanding, insisting, coaching, and working long into the night to achieve this (and while reports of Nordstrom’s laughter and pleasure in the many books that so delighted child after child are most certainly also provided in Good Books for Bad Children: The Genius of Ursula Nordstorm, the general verbal and artistic feeling is reflective and sometimes even melancholy, but also inherently hopeful and optimistic, and that yes, I do oh so much appreciate that Beth Kephart mentions Ursula Nordstrom's long term and committed same sex relationship with Mary Griffith but simply states this as a given and also as such as something natural and sweet).
Four stars for what Beth Kephart has written and Chloe Bristol has illustrated in Good Books for Bad Children: The Genius of Ursula Nordstorm (and with Bristol also incorporating quite a number of the children's books published by Nordstrom into her pictures), highly recommended and truly a wonderful picture book celebration of books, literary and that books for children should be penned and also be published to reflect what children desire and need and not what parents, teachers, politicians, lawmakers, clerics, what adults want and expect, and with my only extremely minor complaint being that Kephart should really be mentioning powerful, opinionated New York City chief librarian Anne Carroll Moore by name as the person who on one page of Good Books for Bad Children: The Genius of Ursula Nordstorm quite nastily and snarkily questions Ursula Nordstrom's educational credentials and pokes fun at her lack of a college education (and to not keep this anonymous), but yes indeed, moved to five stars, as the author's note and in particular the bibliographic sources for Good Books for Bad Children: The Genius of Ursula Nordstorm are outstanding and a very much appreciated added bonus.
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Velma Demerson (1920-2019) was imprisoned in 1939 in Ontario and basically because her "family" was against her being in a romantic relationship with Chinese immigrant Henry Yip. And majorly disgustingly (but at that time also entirely legally), all it took was for Velma Demerson's father to call the police and to declare his adult daughter as being supposedly incorrigible for her, for almost 20 year old Velma to fall into the clutches of Ontario's notorious but now thankfully repealed Female Refuges Act and to not only be arrested but to also be incarcerated at the Mercer Reformatory for Women (where Velma Demerson and fellow inmates were often abused and also used for medical experimentations), and not to mention and to add insult to injury, although Velma Demerson was born in Canada and of Canadian parents, her relationship and failed marriage (post Velma Demerson’s release from Mercer) to Henry Yip also caused her to be stripped of her citizenship (and it indeed took decades for Velma to get it back, with her in fact remaining stateless until 2004).
Now the story of what happened to Velma Demerson (and of course to many women ensnared by the Female Refuges Act) is in my not so humble opinion absolutely disgusting and heartbreaking, and totally unacceptable. And really, the information one can find on Wikipedia and on similar online news sites, these horrifying details of abuse and forced medical experiments should truly already be more than enough for ANYONE to feel massive anger, unless of course, one has the same mentality and attitude towards women and women’s rights as the Taliban does. But even more saddening and infuriating has been reading Velma Demerson’s 2004 Incorrigible, has been encountering Velma’s personal story and remembrances in her very own emotional and immediate words. And yes, while reading Incorrigible, there have certainly been many instances where I have wanted to stop, and also multiple times where I wanted to go back in time, to rescue Velma Demerson and severely and lastingly punish that unmitigated eugenicist and Nazi Edna Guest (who was the main doctor at the Mercer Reformatory for Women and primarily responsible for those meducal experiments). And finally, while not even ONE page of Incorrigible has been in any manner pleasurable to read (and actually rather the opposite, as to top everything off, Velma Demerson’s Incorrigible also clearly shows that even today, many family members are still making all kinds of excuses for Velma’s father and that they also seem to feel that Velma somehow deserved to be arrested and jailed for her relationship with Henry Yip).
But in my opinion, no matter how terrible, Velma Demerson’s memoirs are, Incorrigible is an important and also an essential document and account about an extremely dark and misogynistic chapter in Canadian history and one that should be read and discussed by ALL Canadians from the age of twelve or so onwards.
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What Nico Medina achieves with his 2019 What Was the Berlin Wall? is both textually and thematically impressive. For yes indeed, Medina manages to provide a both extensive and also basic introduction to the Berlin Wall that is sufficiently informative and also specifically geared to the intended age group, to young independent readers from about the ages of eight to eleven or so, with an easy to read text (gloriously and appreciatively penned with a large font size) that shows pretty well everything that is essential knowledge related to the Berlin Wall and to the division of Germany (from the aftermath of WWII and Naziism to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the reunification of East and West Germany in 1990). And while if What Was the Berlin Wall? were being read aloud, Nico Medina's presented text should actually be simple enough to also work with younger children (from about the age of five or six), considering that Medina mentions Nazi atrocities, describes how in East Germany the STASI (the East German equivalent of the Russian KGB and the American CIA) relentlessly spied on and monitored both its own citizens and West Germany and that many escape attempts from East Germany to West Germany ended tragically, although Medina's narrative is never gratuitously violent and does not provide lurid and descriptive details, I would still not recommend What Was the Berlin Wall? for younger children, I would definitely consider What Was the Berlin Wall? as having a solid thematic cut-off of seven to eight years of age.
Now most of the information Nico Medina presents in What Was the Berlin Wall? has not been new to and for me (except for the part about Martin Luther King Jr. visiting East Berlin in the early 1960s and how the Americans actively tried but failed to prevent this by confiscating his passport). And for me, what I have found so refreshingly textually delightful regarding Medina's narrative is that What Was the Berlin Wall? shows a critical but equally also a nicely balanced depiction of East Berlin and of East Germany, with Medina thankfully and appreciatively not rendering every single detail about East German as automatically suspicious and to be totally and utterly disregarded and discarded but also without ever making East Germany look too positive either and that the STASI is always and rightfully so shown by Nico Median as having been utterly and totally negative and dangerous (although I do wish that Median would also be pointing out in What Was the Berlin Wall? that the CIA also often acted like the STASI regarding East Germany and also spied on both East German citizens and also on West Berliners). And furthermore (but importantly), I also majorly appreciate that Medina points out and demonstrates in What Was the Berlin Wall? that while there indeed were many who tried to escape and also sometimes succeeded escaping from East to West Germany (prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall, of course), many East Germans actually were relatively happy with their lives, had no thoughts about escaping and unlike it is often shown in both fiction and non fiction about East Germany and the Berlin Wall, that not every person from East Germany wanted out and that not everyone was automatically against the Berlin Wall and East German style Communism either.
Highly recommended is What was the Berlin Wall? (and with a nice starting bibliography for further reading and research), and the only reason why my rating is four and not five stars for What Was the Berlin Wall being that for one, I have always thought that Elton John's song Nikita is about a Russian and not an East German border guard (and that Nikita is a Slavic and not a German name) and that for two I really do wish that Nico Medina would point out that US president Ronald Reagan should have directed his 1987 words about tearing down the Berlin Wall NOT at Michail Gorbachev but at East German president and dictator Erich Honecker (for I watched Reagan's speech live with my parents and all three of us were just shaking our heads and realizing that Ronald Reagan, that the Americans, obviously had no idea how much of a vile dictator Erich Honecker was and that it was up to Honecker and the East German people to tear down the Berlin Wall in the 1980s and not up to the Soviet Union, and that even if Gorbachev had insisted on the Berlin Wall coming down, Honecker would not have listened and would not have done so).
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Of course, due to the 1999 publication date of Vendela in Venice (titled Vendela i Venedig in the original Swedish), the factual information and details author Christina Björk (and by extension also translator Patricia Crampton, who by the way, does an absolutely fantastic textual job and an interesting, flowing and also delightfully personable and sweetly relatable English language text for Vendela in Venice, and with Vendela in Venice in fact being a Batchelder Award nominee for 2000) have main protagonist and narrator Vendela (who sounds like she is probably nine to twelve years of age and for and to me totally and wonderfully a true kindred spirit) provide about both the Italian Lire and about Venice's flooding issues are both naturally a bit out out date. For yes, there is for example no more Lire as currency in Italy since the adoption of the Euro and that unfortunately the flooding concerns plaguing Venice have sadly become considerably worse recently and not so much due to the overuse of groundwater by industries anymore as is mentioned in Vendela in Venice but more due to global warming and rising sea levels and which was simply not so much as yet a topic of universal concern in 1999, and not to mention that there are also no mentions in Vendela in Venice regarding too much tourism, too many cruise ships and that the bibliographical and details for visiting Venice and also Stockholm at the back of Vendela in Venice are bien sûr not post 1999 and must thus be approached, considered and also used accordingly and with the proverbial grain of salt.
However, if one takes the above mentioned (and nature of the proverbial beast) datedness into account, Vendela in Venice is (at least in my humble opinion) an absolutely, a totally spectacular and lovely middle grade introduction to Venice, to both its history and to its many sightseeing attractions, and not just the Venetian landmarks either, but also places like Harry's Bar and the history behind this, and with Vendela providing a sometimes a bit densely penned but always delightfully educational and also entertainingly fun running commentary on everything Venice and how and why she and her father (with whom she has travelled to Venice to visit the city for a week) are such total and appreciative fan. And indeed, my only really mild and entirely personal pet peeve in fact is that reading Vendela in Venice kind of makes me feel rather majorly jealous of Vendela and of the oh so wonderful relationship she obviously has and enjoys with her father (since no, I certainly did not really ever have this during my own childhood, and I do have to wonder if Vendela, and also if the author, if Christina Björk, whose text for Vendela in Venice is clearly based on her own childhood and on her own family experiences even realise how blessed and how lucky they are and how Vendela's trip to Venice with her father beautifully but also rather painfully shows the kind of vacation I always wanted to experience as a child but never managed to, as no one in my family except for me was actually interested in visiting European landmarks like Venice for their history, their museums and the like).
But yes, for and to me, (and even with my bits and piques of envy) five hugely glowing and shining stars for Vendela in Venice, and with Inga-Karin Eriksson's illustrations, as well as the many photographs giving a visually enchanting, stunning but also never overpowering aesthetic mirror to and for Christina Björk's text (and also Patricia Crampton's translation), highly recommended and suitable for children from above the age of eight or so onwards (but also that Vendela in Venice is for actually and in fact ANYONE wanting a delightful and educational basic introduction to Venice narrated by a young girl whose passion for Venice is enchanting and whose enthusiasm is wonderfully and sweetly addictive, and that while I have read Vendela in Venice on Open Library, I definitely now do want and need my own personal copy to read again and to pore over and through time after time).
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In many ways, Roch Carrier's Le chandail de Hockey (which is a condensed picture book version of a Carrier short story that originally was called Une abominable feuille d'érable sur la glace, An Abominable Maple Leaf on the Ice and has been translated by Sheila Fishman under the English language title of The Hockey Sweater) is not only an account regarding hockey and how much hockey as a sport defines Canada, but The Hockey Sweater is also a bit of a political allegory about the tensions between English and French Canadians (represented by the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens as symbols of this) as well as showing the cultural/political clout and power the Catholic Church used to wield like a pretty heavy duty mallet in Quebec (not anymore, of course, but yes, actually until quite annoyingly recently). And in The Hockey Sweater, Roch Carrier has a young Quebecois boy (basically Carrier himself, since The Hockey Sweater is partially autobiographical) enduring the horrid indignity (at least for a young hockey loving Quebec boy) of having to wear a Toronto Maple Leafs hockey sweater (the clothes of the enemy so to speak, since the rivalry between the Maple Leafs and Les Canadiens is major, is palpable and also represents the all encompassing animosities between English and French Canada).
For when in The Hockey Sweater our young narrator's Montreal Canadiens jersey (with the same number as his idol, as Montreal hockey legend Maurice Richard on the back) becomes too small for him, his mother sends away for a new one from the Eaton's catalogue, but what arrives is not a Montreal Canadiens hockey sweater, but instead a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey. And when the young boy (even though he tries repeatedly to explain to his mother that he simply cannot wear a Toronto Maple Leafs sweater) is still forced to wear that "wrong" jersey during his hockey games, this leads to trouble on the ice (where the poor boy is considered by both his teammates and by the local priest and referee as a symbol of English Canadian power and oppression) and then a visit to church for enforced repentance and prayer. But well, instead of that at the end of The Hockey Sweater the young boy is praying (like is expected of him) for forgiveness regarding his angry outbursts on the ice (and that he learn to control his temper), he instead (and understandably) actually asks God to send swathes of moths to ruin and eat through his Toronto Maple Leaf hockey sweater (a bit of an abrupt ending with some loose strings perhaps, but a conclusion for The Hockey Sweater I personally have found both majorly amusing and in my opinion also spot on regarding how a young mid 20th century Quebec boy upset regarding his hockey sweater being a Toronto Maple Leafs one would likely be reacting).
Set in 1946, The Hockey Sweater is engagingly penned by Rock Carrier and also with much textual humour (but that beneath that sense of hilarity, there exists in The Hockey Sweater also much that is thought-provoking and should make readers/listeners realise that the even in 2022 existing resentments between French and English Canada are not something to consider as insignificant, but something that not so long ago in fact penetrated every single part of Quebecois life, including of course hockey and hockey teams). And yes, this combination of both humour and seriousness in The Hockey, it does not only show itself in Roch Carrier's printed words (and of course also in Sheila Fishman's translation), no, this is also demonstrated by and with Sheldon Cohen's accompanying artwork, which might feel at times a bit gaudy and garish, but absolutely does a totally wonderful job providing not only much visual detail but also showing a superb mirror to and of the featured text, aesthetically demonstrating what Carrier (and Fishman) achieve verbally in The Hockey Sweater.
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Wow, my perusal of The People's Painter: How Ben Shahn Fought for Justice with Art certainly and delightfully has shown to me that author Cynthia Levinson has most definitely done some amazing and really thorough both primary and secondary research for her 2021 picture book biography The People's Painter: How Ben Shahn Fought for Justice with Art (and which was also awarded the 2022 Sibert Medal for non fiction). And while the featured text for The People's Painter: How Ben Shahn Fought for Justice with Art is certainly pretty textually, pretty verbally dense (and thus more suitable to and for older children above the age of eight or so), at the same time, Levinson's writing engagingly and even entertainingly provides a nicely extensive and detailed life story of American figurative artist Ben Shahn (from his childhood in Lithuania to Ben Shahn's final years, and with Levinson also making a point that until the end of his life, Shahn not only kept drawing every day but was also busy advocating for, encouraging and supporting young American artists, giving them the mentorship he himself never received, that Ben Shahn's road to artistic fame was full of obstacles and many trials and that first and foremost, Shahn's art was and is for the people, for the working classes and not to please elitists and art snobs, which The People's Painter: How Ben Shahn Fought for Justice with Art very much and in my opinion glowingly and gloriously demonstrates).
But yes, my appreciation and my reading enjoyment of Cynthia Levinson text for The People's Painter: How Ben Shahn Fought for Justice with Art is further augmented by the fact that at the front of the book there is a short glossary for the Yiddish words Levinson has used (including a pronunciation guide) and that there are equally an author's note, a detailed time line and a bibliographical section provided (books, websites, interviews, source notes), leaving me as an academic broadly smiling (even though I would personally put the glossary for the Yiddish nouns in the same area as the bibliography, as at first I completely missed that there is indeed a glossary included in The People's Painter: How Ben Shahn Fought for Justice with Art and was even erroneously it turns out lamenting its non presence).
Now with regard to Even Turk's accompanying artwork for The People's Painter: How Ben Shahn Fought for Justice with Art, while I do appreciate that Turk's pictures are (and as mentioned in the illustrators note) meant to emulate Ben Shahn's drawing and painting style, from an aesthetic point of view I do not actually find these illustrations all that visually pleasant. However, after now having checked out Ben Shahn's art online a bit (since sadly, there are no actual examples included in The People's Painter: How Ben Shahn Fought for Justice with Art), yes, Evan Turk's pictures, they are definitely very much similar to Ben Shahn's art and as such they do very nicely and very realistically mirror Cynthia Levinson's printed words, and that this successful and pretty much wonderful combination of text and images most definitely makes me rate The People's Painter: How Ben Shahn Fought for Justice with Art with four very much shining and glowing stars.
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Indeed, Janis Herbert's Marco Polo for Kids: His Marvellous Journey to China is most definitely a very good if not even in fact a great general introduction not only to Marco Polo but also to late Medieval history, to the Silk Road, to individuals such as Genghis Khan and so on and so on, suitable for children above the age of ten or eleven. However and in my humble opinion, the book title of Marco Polo for Kids: His Marvellous Journey to China is actually also a bit of a misnomer. For albeit that author Janis Herbert might well have conceptualised her presented narrative as being primarily for younger audiences, that she has penned her text factually, engagingly and also (thankfully) without attempts at childish humour, this does also and equally make Marco Polo for Kids: His Marvellous Journey to China a quite decent and sufficiently informative extensive but not overly intensive, useful introduction to Marco Polo and his times for interested teenagers and adults, with the detailed bibliography and featured websites at the back of Marco Polo for Kids: His Marvellous Journey to China also providing a perfect starting off point for further study and research. And yes, even many of the 21 activities featured in Marco Polo for Kids: His Marvellous Journey to China could in my opinion likely be of interest for both children and adults (as indeed, I am certainly considering both trying my hand at weaving and at making a mosaic).
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Now while I have certainly found Kate Evans' graphic novel Red Rosa: A Graphic Biography of Rosa Luxemburg for the most part very enlightening and also historically, culturally interesting (if not even totally significant, as especially with regard to English language reading materials, there are in my opinion still far too few accessible to and for interested lay readers books available on the history of Socialism and Communism in Europe and on important and necessary to be familiar with activists such as Rosa Luxemburg), I also think that for a graphic novel Red Rosa: A Graphic Biography of Rosa Luxemburg actually tends to be a trifle too wordy and often almost annoyingly textbook like in scope and feel. But that having been said and yes, because I am indeed quite massively interested in the topic and in Rosa Luxemburg as a person, I was still and always engaged enough with Red Rosa: A Graphic Biography of Rosa Luxemburg to continue reading until the end, even though I do certainly and strongly believe that Kate Evans' featured text is truly a bit physically and emotionally exhausting to peruse at times, and yes, also with too small a letter font for my ageing eyes, not to mention that I also do think that the artwork for Red Rosa: A Graphic Biography of Rosa Luxemburg is much too caricature like for my aesthetic tastes (and with in particular most human figures, including Rosa Luxemburg herself, generally appearing as being depicted by Kate Evans in an uncomfortably exaggerated manner).
And indeed, I would also say that Red Rosa: A Graphic Biography of Rosa Luxemburg is definitely NOT a book for younger children (and has probably been geared primarily towards adults). However, Kate Evans' text as well as her accompanying comic book like illustrations are in my opinion and certainly still more than suitable for interested and engaged teenaged readers above the age of thirteen or so (and perhaps even above the age of twelve), although I do have to leave the necessary caveat that from where I am standing, Red Rosa: A Graphic Biography of Rosa Luxemburg is also pretty thoroughly pro-Socialism and Communism (even though also not really overly extremist or radical), even if Red Rosa: A Graphic Biography of Rosa Luxemburg does definitely feature a very good and informative general introduction to Rosa Luxemburg, to her life, to her achievements, to how she was callously and brutally murdered (but also showing and demonstrating how Rosa Luxemburg was one of the very few left wingers always staunchly opposed to WWI and that she, that Rosa Luxemburg also relentlessly strived and fought for women's education and basic gender equality, basic human rights for ALL, including women).
Finally, I certainly and also do wish that when we were studying political systems as well as WWI and WWII in grade 12 social studies (in the early 1980s), there had been a book such as Kate Evans' Red Rosa: A Graphic Biography of Rosa Luxemburg available for our teacher to use in class with us. For Red Rosa: A Graphic Biography of Rosa Luxemburg definitely does give a much more engaging, interesting and also a much easier to understand portrait of Rosa Luxemburg than the rather bone dry and generally tediously boring textbook we were using in class, where, and even though the portrait of Rosa Luxemburg was actually and thankfully politically balanced (neither too positive nor too negative), both Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were basically still just dealt with in a few short and unimaginative, not very detailed sentences.
Children's Books
Books mentioned in this topic
Duran Duran, Imelda Marcos, and Me (other topics)William and the Lost Spirit (other topics)
Wicked Words (other topics)
History Smashers: The Underground Railroad (other topics)
Slavery and the African American Story (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Terry Deary (other topics)John Hendrix (other topics)
Kate Albus (other topics)
Bridget Heos (other topics)
Bridget Heos (other topics)
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