Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers' Strike of 1909

Booklist starred (November 15, 2012 (Vol. 109, No. 6))


Grades K-3. In the winter of 1909, a brave girl named Clara Lemlich, only five feet tall, picketed for workers’ rights. She arrived in America along with hundreds of other immigrants from eastern Europe, hardly speaking any English. But instead of her father being hired, it’s Clara the factories want, and off she goes to make women’s clothing in a garment factory from dawn till dusk. The conditions are appalling: “If you prick your finger and bleed on the cloth, you’re fined. If it happens a second time, you’re fired,” and more. While the men at the factory don’t think girls are strong enough to strike, Clara proves them wrong, eventually leading the “largest walkout of women workers in U.S. history.” Markel’s informative text buzzes with details of the oppressive conditions and neatly plays up Clara’s can-do spirit, but she perhaps tries to cover too much territory, and as a result, omits some crucial explanations (e.g., why can’t Clara’s father get hired?). However, Robert F. Sibert Medalist Sweet (Balloons over Broadway, 2011) creates punchy, vibrant collages that make up for any shortcomings. The zingy images masterfully (and appropriately) incorporate fabric and stitches as well as old images of checks and time cards. One particularly moving picture is seen from above as row upon row of workers toil away. A detailed note about the garment industry and a selected bibliography conclude. This book has fighting spirit in spades—you go, Clara!

Colorful Dreamer The Story of Artist Henri Matisse

Booklist starred (November 1, 2012 (Vol. 109, No. 5))


Grades K-3. This inspiring picture book about the life of Henri Matisse weaves back and forth between Henri’s dreary reality—rendered in pencil shades of black, white, and gray—and the vivid world of his imagination, depicted in gorgeous full-color pencil, paint, and collage. Much to Henri’s parents’ dismay, their son does not excel at school, working in the family store, or the violin; instead, he is a dreamer. During his blah stint as a young lawyer, Henri starts to suffer stomach pains and ends up in the hospital, where he has plenty of time and nothing to do. But a set of paints changes all that: he picked up the paintbrush and was transported into paradise. From here, the book really sings as we’re treated to Henri’s vivid inner life made real on canvas. Parker’s lyrical text is accessible to young children and offers a rich look at the artist’s life, but it’s Berry’s art that wows. She manages to capture the vibrancy and rich saturation of Matisse’s original paintings and then changes styles to reflect his later-in-life colored-paper cutouts, which he referred to as drawing with scissors. An endnote fills in details about Matisse’s life. A great introduction to the renowned artist and a validation of dreamers everywhere.

A Butterfly Is Patient

Kirkus Reviews (May 1, 2011)


Another interwoven flight of poetry, natural history and lovely art from the creators ofAn Egg Is Quiet(2006) andA Seed Is Sleepy(2007). Beneath hand-scripted headers that sometimes take license with facts but create lyrical overtones ("A butterfly is creative"), Aston offers specific and accurate descriptions of metamorphosis, pollination, camouflage, migration and other butterfly features and functions, along with the differences between butterflies and moths. Imagination-stretching comparisons-"monarchs weigh only as much as a few rose petals," the wingspan of the Arian Small Blue is "about the length of a grain of rice"-lend wings to the body of facts, and though the author avoids direct mention of reproduction or death, a quick closing recapitulation that harks back to the opening page's hatching egg provides an artful hint of life's cyclical pattern. With finely crafted, carefully detailed close-up watercolors, Long depicts dozens of caterpillars and butterflies, each one posed to best advantage, unobtrusively labeled and so lifelike that it's almost a surprise to page back and find them in the same positions. Similar butterfly albums abound, but none show these most decorative members of the insect clan to better advantage.(Informational picture book. 8-10)

Bonobos

Library Media Connection (August/September 2012)


Is that a chimpanzee or an orangutan? Maybe it's a gorilla? This series will clear up any confusion one might have about primates. Each book starts off with a description of what primates are and shows where they live in the world. There are chapters about the featured primates' classification, adaptations, life cycle, behavior, intelligence, and their future. Each book also offers a quick reference profile showcasing specific physical differences through a photograph and information about the weight, height, habitat, diet, etc. Each book also gives information on relevant organizations. These books contain maps, diagrams, captions, and stunning photographs. There are unique factoids throughout the books making them useful for research. Text is written in a simple and straightforward manner that is easy enough for upper elementary students to read, yet contains plenty of information for researchers. Bibliography. Glossary. Websites. Index. Patricia Walsh, Educational Reviewer, Norfolk, Virginia. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Unspoken

From the Publisher:


A young girl's courage is tested in this haunting, wordless story.



When a farm girl discovers a runaway slave

hiding in the barn, she is at once

startled and frightened.



But the stranger's fearful eyes

weigh upon her conscience,

and she must make a difficult choice.

Will she have the courage to help him?



Unspoken gifts of humanity unite the girl

and the runaway as they each face a journey:

one following the North Star,

the other following her heart.



Henry Cole's unusual and original rendering

of the Underground Railroad

speaks directly to our deepest sense

of compassion.


Horn Book (November/December, 2012)


This wordless picture book opens with a calm scene: a quilt hangs over a rural split-rail fence. A young girl enters the scene on the next double-page spread, leading a cow and watching a small group of Confederate infantry ride by. The girl continues with her daily chores, including gathering potatoes from the root cellar, where, behind the cut cornstalks stored there, she glimpses an eye, signaling that someone is hiding amongst them. Time passes; surreptitiously, the girl leaves food for the fugitive. The family gathers for a meal; bounty hunters searching for a runaway slave appear -- and then leave. Frightened, the girl runs to check on the escapee and discovers that he or she has gone -- leaving her a handmade cornhusk doll. What Cole shows so superbly through his accomplished yet unpretentious pencil art -- the ideal medium for the book, as it looks as if it’s of the era as well as portraying the era -- is the keeping of secrets. The entire family appears to know what’s going on, but the extent of each character’s involvement is never made explicit; it is conveyed by body language alone, particularly in the exaggerated movements of those who believe they are being watched, their averted eyes when facing the bounty hunters, and the various hands that bring food to the fugitive slave. The back jacket, with an arresting close-up of the young heroine, personalizes the experience by asking young readers: “What would you do if you had the chance to help a person find freedom?” betty carter

The Spindlers

Kirkus Reviews starred (May 15, 2012)


Liza must venture Below to rescue her little brother's soul, stolen by evil, power-hungry spider people called spindlers, in this refreshingly creepy, intricately woven tale. A concealed hole in the wall behind a narrow bookcase in her family's basement is her entry, and amid loud scratching noises, Liza trips, falling down into the darkness Below. Mirabella, a giant rat who wears newspaper for a skirt, becomes her trusted guide to the spindlers' nests, which Liza must reach before the Feast of the Souls. But things are never what they seem in Oliver's vividly imagined world. ... An arduous, dangerous and fantastical journey ensues. As in the author's first terrific book for middle-grade readers, Liesl & Po (2011), there is a smorgasbord of literary references, including strong echoes of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It is laced with humor and engaging wordplay, as well as riddles and death-defying tests and enchantments. Wholly original creatures populate the tale, some reassuring and wise, like the nocturni and lumer-lumpen, others wonderfully macabre (and ferocious), like the queen of the spindlers and the shape-shifting scawgs. In the course of her episodic quest, Liza discovers she is resourceful and brave; she sees things differently than before. Richly detailed, at times poetic, ultimately moving; a book to be puzzled over, enjoyed and, ideally, read aloud. (Final illustrations not seen.) (Fantasy. 8-12)

Looking At Lincoln

Horn Book (January/February, 2012)


A young girl walking through a park passes a Lincoln look-alike and begins to wonder about our sixteenth president. "Who was he?" she asks herself. Being a clever girl, she goes to the library (a van Gogh-inspired room) to find out. She discovers facts but gets "lost in the photos of his unusual face. I stared at one. I could look at him forever." Never pedantic, but through a natural structure that follows the young narrator's own thought processes, the narrative lists some basic facts she discovers about Lincoln's life and then moves to her childlike musings, printed in a more casual font, that personalize this account. "I wonder if Mary and Abraham had nicknames for each other. Did she call him Linky? Did he call her Little Plumpy? Maybe." Other bits of Lincoln lore (objects such as Mary's vanilla cake and Lincoln's top hat) inspire further questions. The story gradually becomes more sophisticated, introducing war and slavery, for example, and these musings, still interspersed with questions, conclude with Lincoln's death. A gloomy funeral scene with the riderless horse is depicted in grays and blacks, a sobering, even startling, note among the profusion of bright gouache illustrations that are as colorful as springtime in Arles. Additional back matter extends the text, but it is the narrator's concluding words as she faces the Lincoln Memorial that best encourages historical examination: "Look into his beautiful eyes. Just look." betty carter