These wardrobe doors open up on a world as magical as Narnia: the past.
You are what you wear.
Canales spotlights 10 distinct historical events or periods, among them the Greek Olympics, Tang-era China, the Inca state, and the French Revolution. Each spread depicts a crowd of people; at the bottom of the spread, the author lists four groups of people (for the Edo era, for instance, samurai, geishas, kabuki actors, and firefighters; for the roaring twenties, children, factory workers, flappers, and jazz musicians). Twelve accessories or apparel items are labeled, but for each of the four groups, one of the items is incorrect. The following pages go into more detail, explaining that during the roaring twenties, children wore Peter Pan collars and zip-up clothes but not long pants and that factory workers sported flat caps and house aprons but never hooped skirts, which could easily get caught in the machinery. Some anomalies are easy to spot; others are trickier. Canales’ concise, informative captions offer key facts and ask readers to actively participate, imagining what people might have worn in these eras; many readers will be spurred on to further research. Carefully composed, animated illustrations repay close scrutiny. This one isn’t just for fashionistas; it will appeal to anyone interested in world or art history. Canales concludes by speculating about what apparel people of the future might wear and identifying museums with well-known clothing collections.
These wardrobe doors open up on a world as magical as Narnia: the past. (Nonfiction. 6-12)Pub Date: May 14, 2025
ISBN: 9781838669966
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Phaidon
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
With young readers diagnosed with anxiety in ever increasing numbers, this book offers a necessary mirror to many.
Young Raina is 9 when she throws up for the first time that she remembers, due to a stomach bug. Even a year later, when she is in fifth grade, she fears getting sick.
Raina begins having regular stomachaches that keep her home from school. She worries about sharing food with her friends and eating certain kinds of foods, afraid of getting sick or food poisoning. Raina’s mother enrolls her in therapy. At first Raina isn’t sure about seeing a therapist, but over time she develops healthy coping mechanisms to deal with her stress and anxiety. Her therapist helps her learn to ground herself and relax, and in turn she teaches her classmates for a school project. Amping up the green, wavy lines to evoke Raina’s nausea, Telgemeier brilliantly produces extremely accurate visual representations of stress and anxiety. Thought bubbles surround Raina in some panels, crowding her with anxious “what if”s, while in others her negative self-talk appears to be literally crushing her. Even as she copes with anxiety disorder and what is eventually diagnosed as mild irritable bowel syndrome, she experiences the typical stresses of school life, going from cheer to panic in the blink of an eye. Raina is white, and her classmates are diverse; one best friend is Korean American.
With young readers diagnosed with anxiety in ever increasing numbers, this book offers a necessary mirror to many. (Graphic memoir. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-545-85251-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
For every dreaming girl (and boy) with a pencil in hand (or keyboard) and a story to share.
A multiaward–winning author recalls her childhood and the joy of becoming a writer.
Writing in free verse, Woodson starts with her 1963 birth in Ohio during the civil rights movement, when America is “a country caught / / between Black and White.” But while evoking names such as Malcolm, Martin, James, Rosa and Ruby, her story is also one of family: her father’s people in Ohio and her mother’s people in South Carolina. Moving south to live with her maternal grandmother, she is in a world of sweet peas and collards, getting her hair straightened and avoiding segregated stores with her grandmother. As the writer inside slowly grows, she listens to family stories and fills her days and evenings as a Jehovah’s Witness, activities that continue after a move to Brooklyn to reunite with her mother. The gift of a composition notebook, the experience of reading John Steptoe’s Stevieand Langston Hughes’ poetry, and seeing letters turn into words and words into thoughts all reinforce her conviction that “[W]ords are my brilliance.” Woodson cherishes her memories and shares them with a graceful lyricism; her lovingly wrought vignettes of country and city streets will linger long after the page is turned.
For every dreaming girl (and boy) with a pencil in hand (or keyboard) and a story to share. (Memoir/poetry. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-399-25251-8
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
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