Children's Notes

by Staff -- Publishers Weekly, 3/26/2007

RIVETING BIOGRAPHIES

Several top-notch biographies come to the fore this spring. With her usual engrossing approach, Jean Fritz offers a window into the journey to and establishment of Jamestown through the eyes of 13-year-old Thomas in Who's Saying What in Jamestown, Thomas Savage?, illus. by Sally Wern Comport. Though Thomas traveled alone from England in 1607, Captain Newport found many jobs for him, and ultimately "gave" him to the Powhatan, to learn their language and act as go-between for the English settlers. Fritz's choice to tell this milestone event through the eyes of a teenager lends it a sense of immediacy for young readers, and Comport's full-color spot illustrations bring the period to life. (Putnam, $18.99 64p ages 7-up ISBN 978-0-399-24644-9; Apr.)

Budding photographers and historians alike will welcome Walker Evans: Photographer of America by Thomas Nau, which traces his life and his influences, from the places he lived (born in the Midwest, he resided briefly in New York and Paris) to the people he met (Berenice Abbott, and James Agee, with whom he collaborated for their photoessay of an Alabama tenant farm family) and the everyday subjects that dominated his photographs and captured an era. An elegant design and a generous number of photographs round out this biography. (Roaring Brook/Porter, $19.95 64p ages 10-14 ISBN 13-978-1-59643-225-3; Apr.)

Using the same inviting scrapbook format as her Tell All the Children Our Story: Memories and Mementos of Being Young and Black in America (which PW called an "impressively researched, imaginatively presented history"), Tonya Bolden here presents Martin Luther King's biography, M.L.K.: Journey of a King. This handsome album of photos, quotes and sidebars houses a narrative of King's life from childhood through his tragically truncated adulthood, with photos ranging from his jail cell to the 1963 March on Washington and his delivery of the "I Have a Dream" speech. (Abrams, $19.95 128p ages 8-14 ISBN 978-0-8109-5476-2; Mar.)

In Behind Enemy Lines: A Young Pilot's Story, author H.R. Demallie tells his own story of leaving the University of Michigan, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, to train as a pilot. He winds up flying a B-17 from England to Germany and bombing the Nazis, only to be shot down over Holland, hidden for a time by Dutch resistors, then discovered and taken as a German POW (the allies eventually liberated him). (Sterling, $6.95 paper 192p ages 12-up ISBN 978-1-4027-4137-1; Mar.)

The third book in her biographies of memorable Americans, The Remarkable Rough-Riding Life of Theodore Roosevelt and the Rise of Empire America by Cheryl Harness adopts a tone worthy of the "cowboy" president ("These folks, mostly from Germany and the British Isles, will do their best to climb New York City's social staircase, but life on its bottom steps is hard," Harness writes). A timeline of world events runs along the bottom of the spreads, and Harness's woodcuts-style illustrations inject humor and historical touches. (National Geographic, $16.95 144p ages 8-12 ISBN 978-1-4263-0008-0; Feb.)

Flashcards of My LifeCharise Mericle Harper. Little, Brown, $6.99 ISBN 978-0-316-16676-8. Emily receives a box of fill-in flashcards labeled with topics about which she is meant to record her feelings and takes full advantage them to vent her middle-school angst. "Harper's tale will elicit nods of recognition—and a few chuckles," according to PW. Ages 8-12. (Mar.)

The Big HouseCarolyn Coman. Puffin, $6.99 ISBN 978-0-14-240740-0. With this sly comedy about two kids sentenced to live with an heiress whose testimony has just sent their parents to jail for embezzlement, "Coman displays her versatility," wrote PW. Ages 8-up. (Mar.)

Double IdentityMargaret Peterson Haddix. S&S/Aladdin, $5.99 ISBN 978-0-689-87379-9. PWcalled this a "timely novel that raises provocative issues about what makes an individual unique, with both compassion and clarity. A suspenseful pageturner." Ages 10-14. (Mar.)

Summer's EndAudrey Couloumbis. Penguin/Speak, $5.99 ISBN 978-0-14-240783-7. When her older brother dodges the Vietnam draft, 13-year-old Grace comes face to face with moral questions about serving one's country. In PW's words, this "tender story conveys the message that 'family was there to catch you' during hard times." Ages 12-up. (Mar.)

No Laughter HereRita Williams-Garcia. HarperTempest, $6.99 ISBN 978-0-06-440992-6. "This contemporary tale about the ancient rite of female circumcision will no doubt leave an indelible mark on preteens," PW said. "A disturbing and poignant coming-of-age novel." Ages 12-up. (Mar.)