Review of Humans of New York: Stories, by Brandon Stanton

Nonfiction Review, Starred Review, True Stories 0

humans_of_ny_stories_largeHumans of New York

Stories

by Brandon Stanton

St. Martin’s Press, New York, 2015. 428 pages.
Starred Review

I loved Brandon Stanton’s first book, Humans of New York. Now I love his second book even more. In the first book, about half of the photographs had captions. In this book, he interviewed everyone, and includes snippets or in-depth stories from those interviews.

You still have high quality photographs of random people, in all their variety, from the streets of New York. But you’ve also got their stories.

Honestly, some of these stories will break your heart. Others will make you shake your head. Some are inspirational. Some are simply cute. There were several with the caption “Today in microfashion,” showing a small child dressed in a striking outfit.

What comes home to me after reading it is the sheer number of amazingly unique people on our planet (let alone in New York!).

Many of the stories go on for paragraphs. This isn’t as quick a read as the first book. However, I’ll quote a small selection of some tantalizingly short captions to give you an idea. Imagine wonderful photos of the people doing the talking.

“I’ve got what I want. I’ve got a place to live, a girlfriend, and a child. My biggest struggle is just figuring out how to maintain.”

“I spoil every girl I’m with. I’m bringing this dog to my girlfriend now. I’ve already gotten her a snake, a rabbit, and two dogs. She loves animals. She wants to be a vet.”

“Sometimes, when I’m going home to see her, I think: ‘Nobody should be this happy on a Tuesday.’”

“I went to a psychic the day before I met him. She told me I was about to meet the woman of my dreams. I said: ‘I’m gay.’”

“Had cancer six times. Beat cancer six times.”

“Three thousand years ago I had a disagreement with Zeus about the Trojan War, and he’s been harassing me ever since.”

“I’ve completed a series of monumental-sized drawings in ballpoint pen of girls who’ve killed their mothers.”

“It’s hard to adjust. You’re reading a story to your daughters every night, then the next thing you know, you’re only doing it once or twice a week. It’s been hard letting go. It all happened without my consent. It only takes one person to want a divorce. And that person wasn’t me.”

“She helps me with my math homework. When I run out of fingers to count on, she lets me use her fingers, too.”

“I once crash-landed a plane in a desert in Tunisia. I wasn’t even the pilot. The pilot got hysterical and I had to grab the controls.”

Reading this book is a wonderful way to celebrate the amazing diversity of humans.

humansofnewyork.com
stmartins.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Baby Wren and the Great Gift, by Sally Lloyd-Jones, illustrated by Jen Corace

Animal Characters, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

baby_wren_largeBaby Wren and the Great Gift

by Sally Lloyd-Jones
illustrated by Jen Corace

Zonderkidz, 2016. 32 pages.
Starred Review

This book charmed me when I didn’t expect to be charmed. The message is one I’ve heard many times: Be thankful for who you are, and you have your own unique gift to give the world.

The lilting language and unusual setting made the message ring clear.

Here’s how the book begins:

In the narrow crevice
of a giant rock face
in a great wide canyon
a baby inside her tiny nest
peeped out.

The baby was little
and brown
and a wren.

And she watched in the air
from her nest in the sky.

And the world was filled with such wonderfulness.
Monarchs in the milkweed.
Breezes in the switch grass.
And a glittering river that ran on.

The baby wren sees other animals doing wonderful things. A kingfisher dives to catch a fish. Ring-tailed cats cartwheel up the rocky face of the cliff. Sunfish swim and splash. Eagles fly above a storm.

Between each animal, the wren wishes she could do what they do, but we also are reminded of the monarchs in the milkweed, the breezes in the switch grass, and the glittering river running on.

Finally, after a storm, the sun paints the whole canyon pink.

And what she saw couldn’t fit inside her
it bumped into her heart
it dazzled in her eyes
it pushed on her throat
until
the tiny trembling bird
with all her tiny might
sang
by herself
a song.

We hear the song, being thankful for all of the wonderful things that have come through – and even the eagles think it is wonderful.

The book ends with a lovely summing-up refrain:

And the kingfisher dived
and the ring-tailed cats climbed
and the sunfish splashed
and the eagles soared

and a little wren filled the air with singing.

And the glittering river ran on.

I also notice this book because my church is planning to open a preschool in about a year, and this book would be a wonderful choice.

The closest it gets to mentioning God is that the wren’s song ends with the words, “Thank you!” The book is published by ZonderKidz, a Christian publishing company, but there’s no reason people of other faiths wouldn’t enjoy it, and I think it would make a nice selection for storytime at the public library as well.

Because giving thanks and appreciating beauty and learning about unusual animals and realizing that even small ones may have great gifts to offer – are all things that are good for anyone to think about.

sallylloyd-jones.com
zonderkidz.com

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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Bear and Bunny, by Daniel Pinkwater and Will Hillenbrand

Animal Characters, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

bear_and_bunny_largeBear and Bunny

by Daniel Pinkwater
illustrated by Will Hillenbrand

Candlewick Press, 2015. 40 pages.
Starred Review

Here’s a book that makes me smile. It’s simple, matter-of-fact, and utterly charming.

Bear and Bunny live in a forest and they are friends. “They like to wander in the woods, look for things to eat, and talk things over. They like to sing.”

I like the simple songs they sing, such as:

I wonder
I wonder
I wonder where
I wonder where my little bear is.

And:

I wonder
I wonder
I wonder where
I wonder where my big bunny is.

You see, the bear is sure the bunny is a very small bear.
The bunny is sure the bear is a very large bunny.
This is not so, but it would be too hard to explain it to them. Besides, it doesn’t matter.

In this story, the bear and bunny do those simple things: wander, look for things to eat, talk things over, and sing. And they take lots of naps. (Talking things over makes you sleepy, after all.)

The two friends decide they’d like a pet. After the bunny explains what a pet is – “an animal you take care of and feed, and it loves you” – they look for one and find a nice “kitty.” When they ask if the kitty would like to go home with them, it answers with a friendly “CROAK!”

Kids will enjoy understanding things better than Bear and Bunny do. Adult readers will enjoy singing the simple songs. This is a friendly, cozy book about the wonder of living in an interesting place – even if you don’t fully understand everything you find.

candlewick.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Glamour in Glass, by Mary Robinette Kowal

Fantasy, Fiction Review, Historical, Starred Review 0

glamour_in_glass_largeGlamour in Glass

by Mary Robinette Kowal

TOR, Tom Doherty Associates, 2012. 334 pages.
Starred Review

A big thank-you to my sister Melanie for giving me this book, which I finally got around to reading.

I have trouble getting around to reading books I own – they don’t have a due date. I read the first book, Shades of Milk and Honey, on a plane trip, and enjoyed it, but wasn’t terribly impressed. I didn’t like the jealousy between the sisters and the tribute to Pride and Prejudice made it quite predictable.

So when I finally read this second book on a plane trip, I thought only to pass the time – and then I loved it!

Jane and her husband Vincent are newly married. They are now working together as Glamourists – people who use magic to create illusions. As the book opens, they have just finished working months on a commission for the Prince Regent.

From there, they decide to go to Belgium as a sort of honeymoon, celebrating the end of the war. Vincent is going to consult with a glamourist there who is developing a new technique that allows one to walk around a glamour and see different things from different sides. There Jane gets an idea of a way to record a glamour in glass so that you can carry it along with you. As they experiment together, they manage to record an invisibility glamour.

However, before long Jane’s activities as a glamourist are put to a halt when she becomes pregnant. The work of creating glamours is too taxing for pregnant women, and she has to sit on the sidelines for a time.

But then word comes that Napoleon has escaped his island exile and is coming back to France, via Belgium. Vincent is more embroiled in events than Jane had realized. Between spies on both sides and the military advantages of the invisibility glamour, Vincent gets into trouble, and it’s up to Jane – who can’t perform glamours – to find a way to get him out.

I thought this book was delightful. Jane’s younger sister wasn’t in it, so there was none of the jealousy or sibling rivalry I didn’t like in the first book. I liked the easy affection between the couple, with natural worries and stumbles as they figure out how to work together and merge their lives together.

This time, I didn’t expect the magic to be earth-shaking – it’s only about glamour, after all – but I think I enjoyed all the more the way it turned out to have military applications. Even before that bit, I liked the way creating glamours was presented as a skill that requires practice and study and invention – and the way Jane and Vincent both brought their talents to this work together. It was a lovely picture of a marriage – yet in a world quite different from our own. The plot wasn’t at all predictable, and I enjoyed the suspenseful elements and political intrigue – all with our heroine mixed up in the middle of it.

I’m going to have to catch up on this series!

maryrobinettekowal.com
tor-forge.com

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Source: This review is based on my own copy, a gift from my sister Melanie.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Salt to the Sea, by Ruta Sepetys

Historical, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

salt_to_the_sea_largeSalt to the Sea

by Ruta Sepetys

Philomel Books, 2016. 391 pages.
Starred Review

This is not a cheery book. I knew that, going in. I got the Advance Reader Copy signed by the author and learned that it is about the greatest naval disaster in history, happening in 1945, when nine thousand people lost their lives. The picture on the cover is of empty life preservers floating in a dark sea.

To make things a little worse, the characters in the book don’t even board the ship until the last section of the book. It’s also a book about war.

Knowing all those things, I had a hard time picking up this book! But when I did (on an airplane trip), I was so glad I had. You do come away with a feeling of hope and transcendence, despite huge difficulties the characters face along the way.

I think it’s fair to tell my readers that some people you care about die – but not everyone. It is possible to read this book and feel uplifted at the end, rather than depressed!

And Ruta Sepetys’ writing is outstanding. She does get you caring about these people, seeing from their eyes. The book is all based on fact. The greatest naval disaster in history, yet who in America today has heard of the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff?

The author did voluminous research (reflected in the back matter), talking with many survivors as well as people who lost family in the disaster. And then she used all this information to bring the stories to life.

We get the perspectives of four different young adults. Every chapter is very short, and the backgrounds unfold in bits and pieces. We begin with Joana, a nurse of Lithuanian and German descent traveling with a group of refugees, fleeing toward the port city. Then we have Florian, who is Prussian and wounded but also fleeing and hiding an enormous secret. Florian stumbles across Emilia, and rescues her from being raped by a wandering Russian soldier. Emilia has her own secrets, and she’s Polish, who are despised by the Germans. Florian and Emilia join the group of refugees whom Joana is tending.

We also see the perspective of Alfred, who writes letters in his mind to Hannelore, a girl he left behind, about his exploits serving the Reich. We can see by the things that he’s called upon to do that his actual job is not so lofty as he describes it. He is going to be part of the reason our refugees are even able to board the Wilhelm Gustloff.

The background is that Germans are fleeing East Prussia ahead of the Russian army. An enormous evacuation happened in 1945, and this book helps the reader understand those desperate times.

Gradually, we learn the stories of each of the characters. I’m not going to say much more because the unfolding of the stories is part of the brilliance of the book. But we learn how each one was shaped by past choices leading to the road they’re taking now.

This is a wonderful book. I was kind of amazed by the time I finished how much I loved it, despite some of the horrendous things these people went through.

rutasepetys.com
penguinteen.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on an Advance Reader Copy signed by the author.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Soar Above, by Steven Stosny

Nonfiction Review, Personal Growth, Starred Review 0

soar_above_largeSoar Above

How to Use the Most Profound Part of Your Brain Under Any Kind of Stress

by Steven Stosny, PhD

Health Communications, Deerfield Beach, Florida, 2016. 229 pages.
Starred Review

I think of Steven Stosny as a relationship guru. His book, You Don’t Have to Take It Anymore (retitled Love Without Hurt) dramatically changed my outlook when my marriage was falling apart and helped transform my own anger into compassion. More recently, his book Living and Loving After Betrayal helped my healing process after divorce. I also attended his Compassion Power Boot Camp years ago and enjoy reading his “Anger in the Age of Entitlement” Psychology Today blog.

It was from the blog that I learned about his new book, Soar Above. At last a book for everyone and for every situation of life – not just when you’re in a tough relationship. This book I can recommend to everyone without fearing they’ll think I’m saying something negative about their relationships.

The Preface of the book lists the questions Dr. Stosny is trying to answer:

Why do so many smart and creative people make the same mistakes over and over, in life, work, and love?

At what point does the unavoidable emotional pain of life become entirely avoidable suffering?

How do we escape suffering while remaining vibrant and passionate about life?

Most of this book talks about the tension between the Toddler brain and the Adult brain. They are specific sections of our brain. The Adult brain does develop later in life – but sometimes it’s hard to get out of the habit of reacting with our Toddler brain.

He explains the problem:

The downside of late maturity in the Adult brain is that it comes online after the Toddler brain has already formed habits of coping with the alarms it raises, mostly through blame, denial, and avoidance. Many Adult brain interpretations and explanations under stress are dominated by those habits, which lowers the accuracy of its reality-testing and impairs its ability to make viable judgments. To the extent that Toddler brain habits are reinforced in adulthood, the Adult confuses the alarm with reality, which makes Toddler brain alarms self-validating:

“If I’m angry at you, you must be doing something wrong. If I’m anxious, you must be threatening, rejecting, or manipulative.”

The result is self-fulfilling prophecy. Other people are bound to react negatively to the negativity I transmit.

Fortunately, the Adult brain has the power to override Toddler brain habits and intentionally develop new ones that serve one’s long-term best interests. Developing new habits is not an easy process, but it’s utterly necessary to soaring above.

The Adult brain is good at lots of things, including calming down Toddler brain alarms. But where it really helps us is with its ability to create Value, Meaning, and Purpose.

Value is a special kind of importance that goes beyond survival and biological needs. To value is to make people, things, and ideas important enough to appreciate, nurture, and protect. We create meaning and purpose in our lives by honoring the value we bestow on people, objects, concepts, behaviors, and some notion of spirituality.

A sunset has value if and only if we give it value – that is, invest energy and effort to fully perceive it, which allows us to appreciate it. While it does nothing for the sunset if we value it, valuing it does wonders for us. The moment of value creation makes us feel more vital, engaged, interested, and appreciative – in short, more alive. Life means more at the instant we create value, just as it means less when we’re not creating value. Most positive emotion, passion, meaning, purpose, and conviction come from creating and protecting value, and much emptiness, aggression, and depression result from failure to create value.

I’m posting lots of quotations from this book on my Sonderquotes blog. I’m also going to reread it to help its message sink in.

If you ever feel bogged down in your Toddler brain, reacting with blame, denial, and avoidance; if you’d like to feel more Meaning and Purpose in your life, I can’t recommend this book highly enough.

Anger in the Age of Entitlement
Compassionpower.com
hcibooks.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on my own book, purchased via Amazon.com.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Booked, by Kwame Alexander

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Poetry, Starred Review 0

booked_largeBooked

by Kwame Alexander

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston, 2016. 314 pages.
Starred Review

A sports novel in verse is pretty much the last sort of book I’d pick up on my own. But this one is nominated for Capitol Choices, and I did love Newbery-winning The Crossover, so I picked up this book last night and ended up reading it in one sitting. I’d forgotten just how good Kwame Alexander’s poetry is.

The story revolves around Nick Hall, a kid who loves soccer. His Dad is a professor of linguistics and he requires Nick to read from his dictionary called Weird and Wonderful Words. Nick hates this task – but his writing – the poems in this book – is peppered with weird and wonderful words, defined in the footnotes. The words include things like limerence, sweven, cachinnate, and logorrhea.

Nick’s got some conflict going on. His best friend’s on an opposing soccer team. There’s a girl he likes. Issues with teachers. He wants to compete in the Dallas Cup, but first his parents, then his own health gets in the way. But the big overarching problem is conflict between his parents.

The story is good, and compelling (I didn’t, after all, put it down until I’d finished.), but what makes the book truly wonderful is Kwame Alexander’s poetry.

He varies the formats so beautifully. There are poems that rhyme. There are acrostic poems. There are poems in two voices. There are long poems and short poems. There are poems made by blacking out all but a few words on the pages of a book. There are poems in two voices to show conversations.

Here’s a short one:

Problemo
The girls
let down
their ponytails,
high-five
their coach,
then walk over
to shake
our sweaty palms
after beating us
five to three.

Here’s another:

Thought

It does not take
a math genius
to understand that
when you subtract
a mother
from the equation
what remains
is negative.

One of my favorites rhymes, but gives away what happens, so I won’t include that one.

And I must confess – all the white space of a verse novel did make it easier to keep going until I finished. I’m sure it will act on kids the same way, too. A verse novel and a sports novel is a great combination. It’s also a novel about words and about issues important to eighth-graders. A win all around.

hmhco.com

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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of The Complete Peanuts, 1999-2000, by Charles M. Schulz

Humorous, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

complete_peanuts_9900_largeThe Complete Peanuts

The Definitive Collection of Charles M. Schulz’s Comic Strip Masterpiece

Dailies and Sundays plus Li’l Folks

1999 to 2000

by Charles M. Schulz

introduction by President Barack Obama

Fantagraphics Books, 2016. 315 pages.
Starred Review

This series is wonderful. Every single Peanuts strip is reproduced, in order. My family has been following it since the series began in 2004 with the 1950 to 1952 volume.

I reviewed the first several volumes, but then decided there wasn’t a lot more to say. They are brilliant, and it is wonderful that Fantagraphics is assembling this collection.

My son and I wondered what they would do with the final volume, since Charles Schulz died in February 2000, so the book would only be half as long.

The solution Fantagraphics came up with delighted us — they reprinted Li’l Folks, a cartoon panel series that Charles Schulz drew from 1947 to 1950 for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. You can see some things that showed up in the early Peanuts strips directly quoted.

It has been a tremendous treat to read all of the Peanuts cartoons over these past twelve years. And now one more volume is promised, with “bonus material and rarities.” I can’t wait!

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Tiny Stitches, by Gwendolyn Hooks, illustrated by Colin Bootman

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, History, Starred Review 0

tiny_stitches_largeTiny Stitches

The Life of Medical Pioneer Vivien Thomas

by Gwendolyn Hooks
illustrated by Colin Bootman

Lee & Low Books, New York, 2016. 32 pages.
Starred Review

Tiny Stitches is the story of Vivien Thomas, the African-American medical researcher who developed the surgical procedure that saved the life of blue babies during the days of segregation and despite overwhelming prejudice.

Vivien always wanted to be a doctor. He saved money for medical school even as a child working with his father as a carpenter. But they lost all their savings in the Great Depression.

It wasn’t through going to medical school that Vivien got his opportunity. He interviewed for a job with medical researcher Dr. Alfred Blalock, and impressed him with his knowledge and intelligent questions. He got a job assisting Dr. Blalock, who gave him more and more research of his own.

Vivien’s surgical techniques improved with each operation. Just as he had learned to fit pieces of wood together seamlessly, Vivien learned to suture, or sew, blood vessels together seamlessly. Dr. Blalock was impressed by Vivien’s tiny stitches. Sometimes Vivien assisted Dr. Blalock with an experiment. On other days, Dr. Blalock assisted Vivien.

Vivien was happy working as a researcher, until he learned that his official job description was janitor. White men with the same duties and skills as Vivien were called research technicians and earned more money. Vivien was insulted. He was not a janitor. He told Dr. Blalock that he would not continue working unless he was paid the same as the other technicians. A few days later, Vivien noticed his paycheck was much better. He now earned about the same as the white technicians.

In 1941, Dr. Blalock became Chief of Surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. He took Vivien Thomas with him, where Vivien faced even more discrimination.

In 1943, Dr. Helen Taussig approached them with the problem of blue babies – babies born with a heart defect so that their blood didn’t get enough oxygen, and they died. Dr. Blalock assigned Vivien to research a method for operating on the babies.

Vivien had to develop new needles small enough to use on babies, and he tried the procedure out on animals. Dr. Blalock assisted Vivien only once during his experiments.

On November 29, 1944, Dr. Blalock tried the procedure Vivien had developed on a blue baby patient named Eileen. Dr. Blalock asked Vivien to stand on a stool behind him and guide him through the operation.

After that operation and others (also assisted by Vivien) were successful, Dr. Blalock and Dr. Taussig were highly acclaimed.

As news spread of Dr. Blalock’s success, two or three operations a week soon became two or three operations a day. Patients came from as far away as Europe to have the procedure. Vivien remained standing on the stool behind Dr. Blalock, coaching him through more than one hundred fifty operations.

The last double-page spread has a picture of Vivien in full academic regalia up on stage.

Vivien Thomas was not publicly acknowledged for his brilliant research and surgical talents until more than twenty-six years after the first blue baby operation. On February 27, 1971, the Old Hands Club, a group of doctors who had trained under Vivien, presented a formal portrait of him to Johns Hopkins Hospital. It is displayed across from Dr. Blalock’s portrait. In 1976, Johns Hopkins University awarded Vivien an honorary doctorate degree and appointed him to the faculty as Instructor of Surgery.

Although he never had the chance to attend medical school, Vivien’s research pioneered open-heart surgery on children. Today about forty thousand children are born each year with heart problems. Because of Vivien Thomas, these children now have a chance to live full and healthy lives.

This book isn’t flashy. The prose tells the story without frills. The pictures show a doctor at work. There’s nothing surprising or startling here.

But the story tells about a remarkable man who did outstanding work and saved lives – even without recognition.

gwendolynhooks.com
colinbootman.net
leeandlow.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Frederick’s Journey, by Doreen Rappaport

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

fredericks_journey_largeFrederick’s Journey

The Life of Frederick Douglass

by Doreen Rappaport
illustrated by London Ladd

Disney Jump at the Sun, Los Angeles, 2015. 44 pages.
Starred Review

Here’s another striking large format picture book biography from Doreen Rappaport. Like her biography of Theodore Roosevelt, To Dare Mighty Things, the bold painting of the subject on the cover sets the tone.

She has a gift for telling important things about a subject even in the short picture book form. Of course, the large paintings by London Ladd keep the reader engaged. As with To Dare Mighty Things, the author includes quotations on every spread.

Frederick Douglass’s story begins with his childhood as a slave. It goes on to tell how he worked hard to learn to read and eventually gained the hope that motivated him to seek his freedom. After that, he worked tirelessly to spread freedom to others.

The quotation at the front of the book sums it up well:

You have seen how man was made a slave;
You shall see how a slave was made a man.

This book shows you Frederick’s story, so you can see his journey yourself.

doreenrappaport.com
londonladd.com
DisneyBooks.com

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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

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