An excellent work that brings history home for readers and will make them ponder: What might I have done?
Posing as a man, a brave young woman became a Civil War soldier.
In 1862, 19-year-old Rosetta Wakeman lived with her family on a farm in upstate New York. Craving excitement, she bound her chest, cut off her braid, dressed in her father’s old clothes, practiced speaking with a deeper voice, and adopted a new first name: Lyons. Thus disguised, Rosetta successfully signed on to a coal barge without arousing suspicion. Several days later, the boat reached the town of Canajoharie, where a new regiment—the 153rd New York State Volunteers—was forming to fight for the Union; Lyons enlisted, adding two years to her age. Luckily, the medical exam was superficial, and her secret remained safe. She and the regiment departed for Virginia, where they drilled daily; at night, she wrote letters—excerpts are included—and sent her much-needed army pay home. Eventually, the regiment moved on to Washington, D.C., then Louisiana. The soldiers’ lives were filled with peril as they faced the enemy, but Lyons proved handy with a rifle. Backmatter reveals that Rosetta/Lyons Wakeman died of dysentery in New Orleans on June 19, 1864, aged 21. This is a fascinating, well-told, close-up glimpse into women’s, military, and Civil War history; Rosetta’s story will inspire. The exceptional scratchboard illustrations, with some color digitally added, resemble wood engravings and beautifully capture period details and settings.
An excellent work that brings history home for readers and will make them ponder: What might I have done? (glossary, author’s note, about the art, more about Rosetta Wakeman and the Civil War, timeline, Rosetta Wakeman’s letters, endpaper glossary) (Informational picture book. 8-12)Pub Date: Feb. 27, 2024
ISBN: 9780802854643
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Eerdmans
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
Essential.
A measured corrective to pervasive myths about what is often referred to as the “first Thanksgiving.”
Contextualizing them within a Native perspective, Newell (Passamaquoddy) touches on the all-too-familiar elements of the U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving and its origins and the history of English colonization in the territory now known as New England. In addition to the voyage and landfall of the Mayflower, readers learn about the Doctrine of Discovery that arrogated the lands of non-Christian peoples to European settlers; earlier encounters between the Indigenous peoples of the region and Europeans; and the Great Dying of 1616-1619, which emptied the village of Patuxet by 1620. Short, two- to six-page chapters alternate between the story of the English settlers and exploring the complex political makeup of the region and the culture, agriculture, and technology of the Wampanoag—all before covering the evolution of the holiday. Refreshingly, the lens Newell offers is a Native one, describing how the Wampanoag and other Native peoples received the English rather than the other way around. Key words ranging from estuary to discover are printed in boldface in the narrative and defined in a closing glossary. Nelson (a member of the Leech Lake Band of Minnesota Chippewa) contributes soft line-and-color illustrations of the proceedings. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Essential. (Nonfiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-72637-4
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Scholastic Nonfiction
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
Like oil itself, this is a book that needs to be handled with special care.
In 1977, the oil carrier Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons of oil into a formerly pristine Alaskan ocean inlet, killing millions of birds, animals, and fish. Despite a cleanup, crude oil is still there.
The Winters foretold the destructive powers of the atomic bomb allusively in The Secret Project (2017), leaving the actuality to the backmatter. They make no such accommodations to young audiences in this disturbing book. From the dark front cover, on which oily blobs conceal a seabird, to the rescuer’s sad face on the back, the mother-son team emphasizes the disaster. A relatively easy-to-read and poetically heightened text introduces the situation. Oil is pumped from the Earth “all day long, all night long, / day after day, year after year” in “what had been unspoiled land, home to Native people // and thousands of caribou.” The scale of extraction is huge: There’s “a giant pipeline” leading to “enormous ships.” Then, crash. Rivers of oil gush out over three full-bleed wordless pages. Subsequent scenes show rocks, seabirds, and sea otters covered with oil. Finally, 30 years later, animals have returned to a cheerful scene. “But if you lift a rock… // oil / seeps / up.” For an adult reader, this is heartbreaking. How much more difficult might this be for an animal-loving child?
Like oil itself, this is a book that needs to be handled with special care. (author’s note, further reading) (Informational picture book. 9-12)Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-3077-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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