Acute and rich in insight.
A tribute to the distinctive approach and sensibility of the renowned modernist architect.
In language as simple and stately as her subject’s best works, Leung traces the long career of I.M. Pei (1917-2019) from childhood encounters with the intricately water-sculpted volcanic rocks in the gardens at Suzhou to his design of an art museum for the Chinese city many decades later. In between, she follows him to Shanghai and then the U.S., where he trained in his vocation, became a citizen, and, after winning a breakthrough commission to design the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, went on to a long and distinguished career. The author artfully develops her thesis that Pei “could foresee how the shape of a building must harmonize with nature, with people, and with time” by describing how he solved potential challenges in some of his iconic buildings, such as the tall but slender Bank of China tower in Hong Kong with its innovative diagonal bracing, as well as the daring but now iconic glass pyramid at the Louvre. (The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, alas, gets just a bare mention in the closing timeline.) In Wu’s clean and lovely illustrations, Pei stands amid fanciful, harmoniously hued geometric shapes that tumble kaleidoscopically through his thoughts before flowing naturally, effortlessly, into structural components. Buildings and people alike seem to stand with graceful but monumental solidity.
Acute and rich in insight. (selected sources) (Picture-book biography. 7-9)Pub Date: May 28, 2024
ISBN: 9780063006300
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A pivotal moment in a child’s life, at once stirring and authentically personal.
Before growing up to become a major figure in the civil rights movement, a boy finds a role model.
Buffing up a childhood tale told by her renowned father, Young Shelton describes how young Andrew saw scary men marching in his New Orleans neighborhood (“It sounded like they were yelling ‘Hi, Hitler!’ ”). In response to his questions, his father took him to see a newsreel of Jesse Owens (“a runner who looked like me”) triumphing in the 1936 Olympics. “Racism is a sickness,” his father tells him. “We’ve got to help folks like that.” How? “Well, you can start by just being the best person you can be,” his father replies. “It’s what you do that counts.” In James’ hazy chalk pastels, Andrew joins racially diverse playmates (including a White child with an Irish accent proudly displaying the nickel he got from his aunt as a bribe to stop playing with “those Colored boys”) in tag and other games, playing catch with his dad, sitting in the midst of a cheering crowd in the local theater’s segregated balcony, and finally visualizing himself pelting down a track alongside his new hero—“head up, back straight, eyes focused,” as a thematically repeated line has it, on the finish line. An afterword by Young Shelton explains that she retold this story, told to her many times growing up, drawing from conversations with Young and from her own research; family photos are also included. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A pivotal moment in a child’s life, at once stirring and authentically personal. (illustrator’s note) (Autobiographical picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-545-55465-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
Quick and slick, but ably makes its case.
The distinguished jurist stands tall as a role model.
Not literally tall, of course—not only was she actually tiny but, as with all the other bobbleheaded caricatures in the “Ordinary People Change the World” series, Ginsburg, sporting huge eyeglasses on an outsize head over black judicial robes even in childhood, remains a doll-like figure in all of Eliopoulos’ cartoon scenes. It’s in the frank acknowledgment of the sexism and antisemitism she resolutely overcame as she went from reading about “real female heroes” to becoming one—and also the clear statement of how she so brilliantly applied the principle of “tikkun olam” (“repairing the world”) in her career to the notion that women and men should have the same legal rights—that her stature comes clear. For all the brevity of his profile, Meltzer spares some attention for her private life, too (“This is Marty. He loved me, and he loved my brains. So I married him!”). Other judicial activists of the past and present, all identified and including the current crop of female Supreme Court justices, line up with a diversely hued and abled group of younger followers to pay tribute in final scenes. “Fight for the things you care about,” as a typically savvy final quote has it, “but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”
Quick and slick, but ably makes its case. (timeline, photos, source list, further reading) (Picture-book biography. 7-9)Pub Date: Jan. 9, 2024
ISBN: 9780593533338
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Rocky Pond Books/Penguin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2023
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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