BROWN ANGELS
AN ALBUM OF PICTURES AND VERSE
Enchanting period photos of young African-Americans, which Myers collected from "dusty bins in antique shops, flea markets, auction houses, and museum collections." The children are dressed in their best—white lace, baggy trousers, or school clothes and bare feet—and elegantly posed, whether in gracious surroundings or sitting on a humble stoop; their luminous gazes are warmed with the rich gold and brown of the old photos. Truly, this beautifully designed "album" is a labor of love. Myers's verse is less wonderful; it offers no epiphanies to match the pictures, but his echoes of African-American speech and themes make them a decent accompaniment. And if "For I am dark and precious/And have such gifts to give/Sweet joy, sweet love,/Sweet laughter/Sweet wondrous life to live" seems—well, sweet, it's also piquantly ironic in light of the struggles awaiting these promising, much-beloved children. (Poetry. 5+)
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1993
Categories: CHILDREN'S FAMILY
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
From the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series , Vol. 14
by Jeff Kinney ; illustrated by Jeff Kinney ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 5, 2019
The Heffley family's house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg's mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family's cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work's been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school's dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg's mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn't want to lose his best friend). While Greg's positive about the move, he's not completely uncaring about Rowley's action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the "stress lizard" brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)
Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Categories: GENERAL GRAPHIC NOVELS & COMICS | CHILDREN'S FAMILY
by Jeff Kinney ; illustrated by Jeff Kinney
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A simplistic take on the complex issue of Black identity in America.
WHO ARE YOUR PEOPLE?
by Bakari Sellers ; illustrated by Reggie Brown ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 11, 2022
A Black man teaches two Black children about their roots.
"Who are your people?" and "Where are you from?" These questions open the book as a man leads an unnamed boy and girl, presumably his children, into "Remembrance Park," where they gaze up at Muhammad Ali, Maya Angelou, Stacey Abrams, and Martin Luther King Jr., who appear as cloudy apparitions in the sky. This imagery gives the misleading impression that Abrams, very much alive, is in heaven with the other figures, who are all deceased. Later on in the story, another potentially delusive illustration shows the main characters visiting a Mount Rushmore–like monument showcasing Kamala Harris alongside departed Black icons. After highlighting inspirational individuals who are not descended from people enslaved in the United States, the illustrations paradoxically depict enslaved Black Americans working in cotton fields. The portrayal of slavery is benevolent, and the images of civil rights marches and sit-ins likewise lack the necessary emotional depth. The text's statement that "you are from the country where time moves with ease and where kindness is cherished" erases centuries of African American struggle in the face of racist violence and systemic exclusion. The book tries to instill pride in African Americans, who continue to struggle with a lack of shared identity or common experience; ultimately, it stumbles in its messaging and attempts to turn an extremely complicated, sometimes controversial topic into a warm and fuzzy picture book. All characters are Black.
A simplistic take on the complex issue of Black identity in America. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Jan. 11, 2022
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins