A successor of sorts to Immigrant Kids (1980)—but a less focused, more diffuse entity. The title, indeed, is something of a misnomer: though the period photographs that are the book's prime attraction frequently show frontier children, much of the volume has simply to do with the westward travel and settlement of which children were a part. On the other hand, the chapter on the lives of Indian children is really ethnography, except for mention of Indian boarding schools. Subsequent chapters—on frontier schools, on chores and paid employment (Nat Love and other black cowhands, Lotta Crabtree and other performers), on assorted diversions—are somewhat less fulfilling than reading Laura Ingalls Wilder. (They're also somewhat less frank: "Discipline. . . was not usually a serious problem for female teachers," we're told. "In those days they were respected because they were women.") As an account of frontier conditions, however, the text is as unromantic as the photos (e.g., "Accidents and disease killed far more emigrants than the Indians did"); and the endpaper photo alone—a multiethnic, multiracial crush of children in Central City, Colorado—will make the book memorable for some.
Pub Date: Oct. 17, 1983
ISBN: 0395547857
Page Count: 116
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1983
Categories: TEENS & YOUNG ADULT NONFICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT HISTORY
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A miniature manifesto for radical queer acceptance that weaves together the personal and political.
Eli, a cis gay white Jewish man, uses his own identities and experiences to frame and acknowledge his perspective. In the prologue, Eli compares the global Jewish community to the global queer community, noting, “We don’t always get it right, but the importance of showing up for other Jews has been carved into the DNA of what it means to be Jewish. It is my dream that queer people develop the same ideology—what I like to call a Global Queer Conscience.” He details his own isolating experiences as a queer adolescent in an Orthodox Jewish community and reflects on how he and so many others would have benefitted from a robust and supportive queer community. The rest of the book outlines 10 principles based on the belief that an expectation of mutual care and concern across various other dimensions of identity can be integrated into queer community values. Eli’s prose is clear, straightforward, and powerful. While he makes some choices that may be divisive—for example, using the initialism LGBTQIAA+ which includes “ally”—he always makes clear those are his personal choices and that the language is ever evolving.
Small but mighty necessary reading. (resources) (Nonfiction. 14-18)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09368-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
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The trials of a high school basketball team trying to clinch the state title and the graphic novelist chronicling them.
The Dragons, Bishop O’Dowd High School’s basketball team, have a promising lineup of players united by the same goal. Backed by Coach Lou Richie, an alumnus himself, this could be the season the Oakland, California, private Catholic school breaks their record. While Yang (Team Avatar Tales, 2019, etc.), a math teacher and former National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, is not particularly sporty, he is intrigued by the potential of this story and decides to focus his next graphic novel on the team’s ninth bid for the state championship. Yang seamlessly blends a portrait of the Dragons with the international history of basketball while also tying in his own career arc as a graphic novelist as he tries to balance family, teaching, and comics. Some panels directly address the creative process, such as those depicting an interaction between Yang and a Punjabi student regarding the way small visual details cue ethnicity in different ways. This creative combination of memoir and reportage elicits questions of storytelling, memory, and creative liberty as well as addressing issues of equity and race. The full-color illustrations are varied in layout, effectively conveying intense emotion and heart-stopping action on the court. Yang is Chinese American, Richie is black, and there is significant diversity among the team members.
A winner. (notes, bibliography) (Graphic nonfiction. 13-18)Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-62672-079-4
Page Count: 448
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
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