In Jewish belief, there are righteous people in every generation who can repair a tear in the universe. Irena Sendler was truly one of them.
Born into a comfortable Polish Catholic family, Irena had many Jewish friends growing up, and they shared idealistic beliefs. When the Germans invaded Poland and set off World War II, she was determined to assist the Jewish population in any way possible, especially those in the walled-off Warsaw ghetto. Carrying necessary papers she was able to enter and leave the ghetto. She and like-minded Poles rescued as many as 2,500 Jewish children, carefully recording names and keeping them in a jar (never found). She kept up her mission even as conditions within the walls became worse, as starvation, disease, the “murderous brutality” of the German occupying forces, and deportations to extermination camps grew in intensity. Even arrest, torture, and a miraculous release from certain death did not stop her. Farrell’s adaptation of Mazzeo’s adult title (2016) clearly presents her life and the ever present reality of death in a sobering, heartbreaking narrative.
Readers will understand how Sendler came to be honored by Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial as one of the Righteous Among the Nations. (black-and-white photographs, adapter’s note, endnotes not seen) (Biography. 12-18)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-4991-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
Categories: CHILDREN'S BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | CHILDREN'S HISTORY
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Self-taught painter Monceaux (Jazz: My Music, My People, 1994) follows up his first book with this collection of African- American and Native American figures from the American West. He has, again, created his own form for historical and biographical portraiture, combining individual profiles and textual elements into a visually stirring montage. As with Faith Ringgold’s story quilts, this primitive style incorporates collage (bits of buttons, bells, ribbons, lace, feathers), and crowns each figure with hastily scribbled biographical notes. The legendary Pocahontas, Geronimo, and Bill Pickett appear alongside lesser-known people who were cowboys, marshals, soldiers, lawyers, artists, nurses, outlaws, and stagecoach drivers of the Old West. Arranged in loose categories (“Fur Trade,” “Buffalo Soldiers,” “Women,” etc.), the portraits are accompanied by brief biographical sketches that tantalize readers, and leave them wanting to know more. To that end, extensive notes on sources and further reading is included. (Nonfiction. 10+)
Pub Date: Nov. 10, 1999
ISBN: 0-374-30770-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1999
Categories: GENERAL FICTION | CHILDREN'S BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR
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A skillful, compelling account of the complicated history of César Chávez and the farm workers movement, set in the context of the social and political tensions of the times.
“We used to own our slaves. Now we just rent them,” said a farmer in Harvest of Shame, a 1960 documentary about migrant workers. Union leader Chávez started picking produce as an adolescent and knew firsthand the brutal conditions farmworkers endured. Driven to change those conditions and raise wages, Chávez worked ceaselessly to organize California’s migrant workers into a union, which became the United Farm Workers. It successfully pioneered the use of boycotts to support strikes and adopted techniques such as fasting and protest marches from Gandhi and the civil rights movement. But hard-won victories were followed by setbacks at the hands of powerful farm owners and their Teamster allies. The UFW also suffered from increasing tension between Chávez and Filipino-American union leaders, while others criticized Chávez’s emphasis on Catholicism and his aversion to dissent. Brimner’s evenhanded, well-researched narrative uses apt quotes to convey a sense of the people, their actions and their emotions. Appropriately enough, green and purple accent the pages.
With an appealing design and many black-and-white photographs, this paints a vivid, detailed picture of an important labor movement and its controversial yet inspiring leader. (author’s note, further reading, websites, places to visit, source notes, index) (Nonfiction. 12-16)Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-59078-997-1
Page Count: 170
Publisher: Calkins Creek/Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
Categories: CHILDREN'S BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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