Review by New York Times Review
THE SPLINTERING OF THE AMERICAN MIND: Identity Politics, Inequality, and Community on Today's College Campuses, by William Egginton. (Bloomsbury, $28.) Egginton, a professor at Johns Hopkins, regards the often militant discourse around identity with sympathy and concern. THE CODDLING OF THE AMERICAN MIND: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure, by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt. (Penguin Press, $28.) Expanding on their influential Atlantic article, the authors trace the culture of "safetyism" on campus to a generation convinced of its own fragility, warning of potentially dire consequences for democracy. IDENTITY: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment, by Francis Fukuyama. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $26.) In a sympathetic analysis of identity politics, Fukuyama argues that the sense of being dismissed, rather than material interest, is the current locomotive of human affairs. THE LIES THAT BIND: Rethinking Identity: Creed, Country, Color, Class, Culture, by Kwame Anthony Appiah. (Liveright, $27.95.) Appiah, a cosmopolitan by background and choice, says that we tend to think of ourselves as part of monolithic tribes up against other tribes, whereas we each contain multitudes. ARTHUR ASHE: A Life, by Raymond Arsenault. (Simon & Schuster, $37.50.) This first major biography of the great tennis champion, written by a civil rights historian, shows that Ashe's activism was as important as his athletic skill. He belongs on the Mount Rushmore of elite sports figures who changed America. DEAD GIRLS: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession, by Alice Bolin. (Morrow/HarperCollins, paper, $15.99.) Bolin's stylish and inspired collection centers on the figure - ubiquitous in police procedurals from "Twin Peaks" to "True Detective" - of the "dead girl," a character who represents a dominant American fantasy, inciting desire and rage in equal measure. THIS MOURNABLE BODY, by Tsitsi Dangarembga. (Graywolf, paper, $16.) In this accomplished sequel to "Nervous Conditions," her prize winning debut of 30 years ago, Dangarembga, a Zimbabwean author and filmmaker, finds her indomitable heroine, Tambu, single, middle-aged and unemployed but unbowed. NOTES FROM THE FOG: Stories, by Ben Marcus. (Knopf, $26.95.) In his latest collection, the ever inventive Marcus delivers taut, bleak, dystopian stories that are disturbing and outlandish yet somehow eminently plausible. MARWAN'S JOURNEY, by Patricia de Arias. Illustrated by Laura Borras. (MinEdition, $17.99; ages 5 to 7.) This sensitive, beautifully illustrated tale of a boy's journey across a desert, away from his war-torn homeland, ends with safety and dreams of return. The full reviews of these and other recent books are on the web: nytimes.com/books
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [August 30, 2019]
Review by Booklist Review
In this haunting and gorgeously illustrated picture book about forced migration, a small, sad boy named Marwan narrates while taking giant steps in a caravan of people escaping their homeland on foot. De Arias sets her story in an unnamed place, but cultural references, supported by illustrations, suggest one of the Middle Eastern countries from which millions are currently being displaced. The text is unembellished, yet evocative: my footsteps leave a trace of ancient stories, the songs of my homeland, and the smell of tea and bread, jasmine and earth. The boy's spare thoughts reflect upon the home he left and his resolve to keep walking with his people. But what the text omits, the images provide. Swathes of deeply pigmented watercolor and black ink float on white backgrounds, capturing the arid desert, jumble of towns, and a sea of faces moving on with grim determination, as well as Marwan's hope of returning home one day and planting a garden. His story leaves the reader unsettled, perhaps reasonably so, as Marwan, too, is left unmoored.--Chaudhri, Amina Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
After tanks arrive and "swallow up everything," a boy begins the harrowing, heartbreaking journey away from his home in an unnamed desert village: "I take giant steps even though I am small.... I don't know when I will get there, or where I am going. I carry a heavy bag." His mother is missing, but the boy dreams of her as they camp at night and imagines her words urging him forward as he walks during the day, joining "hundreds of people, thousands of feet, one in front of the other." Finally, the boy reaches a border, where an ambiguous ending suggests that he finds a new home in a new country. Readers may need help puzzling out a few metaphors in some of the spare, poetic lines ("I will build my house with the cement of my sure steps"). But Borràs, the recipient of several international illustration awards, creates powerful images in fluid ink lines and textured paint washes that convey with uncommon sensitivity a young refugee's fear, courage, and sense of dislocation. Ages 5-7. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3-Young Marwan takes "giants steps even though I am small....crossing the desert," leaving traces of his homeland behind. He takes with him small relics such as a photograph as well as many memories as he travels to "an infinite line that separates the desert from the sea." Though he heads to another land with a different language, to a different house in a different country, he remembers his mother's words and never loses hope. Instead, Marwan continues to "pray that night never...goes so dark again." Lightly layered illustrations, done in what appears to be watercolor and ink, use earth tones to evoke a desert landscape. As the child continues his trek, additional but subtle colors are introduced in the changing scenery. Marwan's spare narration effectively conveys his journey, complemented by the changing perspectives of the illustration. VERDICT This lyrical yet accessible addition to a growing body of refugee stories captures the resilience and courage of displaced children seeking safety and sanctuary.-Maria B. Salvadore, formerly at District of Columbia Public Library © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Although Marwan's Middle Eastern birth country is only hinted at in the beautifully expressive watercolor and ink paintings, the boy is unfortunately among the adult and child refugees fleeing war-torn countries worldwide. His mother, "with her flour-soft hands," is not beside him on the hard journey. The poetic first-person text, translated from the Spanish, addresses violence but still allows hope of Marwan one day returning to his homeland. (c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A child walks across the desert fleeing conflict, recalling the home left behind and promising to return to it someday.As Marwan walks, the simple and poetic text brings readers along on this heartbreaking journey: "I walk, and my footsteps leave a trace of ancient stories, the songs of my homeland, and the smell of tea and bread, jasmine and earth." Marwan walks with many. His mother is not among them, but as he dreams, he can hear her voice urging him to walk on and never look back. He remembers the day darkness swallowed up everything and he joined a "line of humans like ants crossing the desert." Marwan vows to return and to pray "that one day the night never, never, never goes so dark again." Borrs' deceivingly simple freestyle illustrations in ink and color wash go hand in hand with the text, neither one shying away from harsh reality yet still child accessible. Originally published in Spanish as El Camino de Marwan and honored at the Bologna Ragazzi Awards in 2017, it is the story of a journey that is sadly the journey of too many children, one filled with fear and hope, longing and sadness. The country that Marwan is forced to leave is never specified, but details such as his Arabic name, onion domes, and women in hijabs point to Syria.A beautiful, haunting, and, sadly, important book. (Picture book. 6-10) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
