Portraits of 16 bright lights in the scientific firmament, with particular focus on some of their lesser-known quirks and achievements.
Nearly half of Stabler’s selected stars are men. Grouping entries by general field, he blasts off with NASA numbers whiz Katherine Johnson and pulls up to a close with Stephen Hawking. In between he highlights Isaac Newton’s rodent-powered windmill, Benjamin Franklin’s swim fins and his views on swimming, Marie Curie’s youthful talent for practical jokes, “Bad Albert” Einstein’s very first words (“The soup is too hot!”), Ada Lovelace’s design for a steam-powered flying horse, Temple Grandin’s Hug Box, and so on, in an apparent effort to make luminaries often portrayed as larger than life a bit closer to human. If his claim that they were all “just ordinary kids who were curious about the world around them” doesn’t always hold water (Johnson, for instance, started high school at 10, and Rachel Carson was earning money as a professional writer at 15), young readers will at least get reassuring glimpses of slow starters such as Einstein and Hawking (who didn’t learn to read until he was 8) as well as stars who rose past barriers of race (Johnson, George Washington Carver), gender (Vera Rubin), and disability (Grandin, Hawking) to shine. Lighthearted portraits from Syed on every page feature stylized but recognizable versions of each subject with jokey comments or punchlines.
Worthy role models all. (source list, index) (Collective biography. 10-13)Pub Date: Oct. 9, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-68369-074-0
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: July 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
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Why should grown-ups get all the historical, scientific, athletic, cinematic, and artistic glory?
Choosing exemplars from both past and present, Mitchell includes but goes well beyond Alexander the Great, Anne Frank, and like usual suspects to introduce a host of lesser-known luminaries. These include Shapur II, who was formally crowned king of Persia before he was born, Indian dancer/professional architect Sheila Sri Prakash, transgender spokesperson Jazz Jennings, inventor Param Jaggi, and an international host of other teen or preteen activists and prodigies. The individual portraits range from one paragraph to several pages in length, and they are interspersed with group tributes to, for instance, the Nazi-resisting “Swingkinder,” the striking New York City newsboys, and the marchers of the Birmingham Children’s Crusade. Mitchell even offers would-be villains a role model in Elagabalus, “boy emperor of Rome,” though she notes that he, at least, came to an awful end: “Then, then! They dumped his remains in the Tiber River, to be nommed by fish for all eternity.” The entries are arranged in no evident order, and though the backmatter includes multiple booklists, a personality quiz, a glossary, and even a quick Braille primer (with Braille jokes to decode), there is no index. Still, for readers whose fires need lighting, there’s motivational kindling on nearly every page.
A breezy, bustling bucketful of courageous acts and eye-popping feats. (finished illustrations not seen) (Collective biography. 10-13)Pub Date: May 10, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-14-751813-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Puffin
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2015
Categories: CHILDREN'S BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR
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A custom-built, bulletproof limo links two historical figures who were pre-eminent in more or less different spheres.
Garland admits that a claim that FDR was driven to Congress to deliver his “Day of Infamy” speech in a car that once belonged to Capone rests on shaky evidence. He nonetheless uses the anecdote as a launchpad for twin portraits of contemporaries who occupy unique niches in this country’s history but had little in common. Both were smart, ambitious New Yorkers and were young when their fathers died, but they definitely “headed in opposite directions.” As he fills his biographical sketches with standard-issue facts and has disappointingly little to say about the car itself (which was commissioned by Capone in 1928 and still survives), this outing seems largely intended to be a vehicle for the dark, heavy illustrations. These are done in muted hues with densely scratched surfaces and angled so that the two men, the period backgrounds against which they are posed, and the car have monumental looks. It’s a reach to bill this, as the author does, a “story about America,” but it does at least offer a study in contrasts featuring two of America’s most renowned citizens. Most of the human figures are white in the art, but some group scenes include a few with darker skin.
The car gets shortchanged, but comparing the divergent career paths of its (putative) two riders may give readers food for thought. (timeline, bibliography) (Picture book/biography. 10-12)Pub Date: March 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-88448-620-6
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Tilbury House
Review Posted Online: Jan. 15, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
Categories: CHILDREN'S BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | CHILDREN'S HISTORY
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