Kid Blink Beats the World [Hardcover]

Don Brown (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 26, 2004 | Age Level: 5 and up

"It was all for a penny.
They left their cramped and crowded tenement apartments for a penny.
They scurried beside the pushcart peddlers for a penny.
They dodged street trolleys and horse drawn wagons for a penny.
And in the summer of 1899, Kid Blink, Race Track Higgins, Tiny Tim, Crutch Morris, and Crazy Arborn battled the world for a penny."

The story of the newsboys (and girls) who took on the world's most powerful press barons - and won.

In the summer of 1899, the hundreds of newsboys who sold Randolph Hearst's Journal and Pulitzer's World on the streets of New York and surrounding cities went on strike. The issue was a penny-the extra penny that the press owners wanted to charge the newsboys to buy the papers. To the press owners it didn't seem like much, but to the newsboys it was a living, and they fought. Led by kids with colorful names like Kid Blink, Race Track Higgins, Tiny Tim, and Crutch Morris, they refused to sell the papers, staged rallies-and finally brought the newspapers to the negotiating table.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 3-6–"It was all for a penny…in the summer of 1899, Kid Blink, Race Track Higgins, Tiny Tim, Crutch Morris, and Crazy Arborn battled the world for a penny." That "world" was Joseph Pulitzer's The World newspaper (along with Randolph Hearst's The Journal), and that penny was a very important penny, indeed. Kids today may not understand the big deal, but when presented with this lively account of the facts of life in the day when "newsies" sold papers on street corners and 15 cents paid for dinner, they may have a better grasp of the elements of economics, the power of a penny, and the strength of organized labor. Subdued washes of sepia, lavender, and gray temper this telling of the sometimes-violent lengths to which hundreds of working children went to make themselves heard above the likes of Pulitzer and Hearst, and Brown's pictures have a sketched-quick quality that at once conveys the movement and the momentum of this slice of our history. An author's note and brief bibliography give sources and qualifiers. Add this catalyst for conversation about labor laws and workers' rights to Kathleen Krull's Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez (Harcourt, 2003), Holly Littlefield's Fire at the Triangle Factory (Sagebrush, 1996), and (for older audiences) Russell Freedman's seminal piece, Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor (Clarion, 1994).–Kathy Krasniewicz, Perrot Library, Old Greenwich, CT
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Gr. 2-5. Brown has found a winning topic to write about--literally. This grabber of a picture book for older children details the events in the summer of 1899, during which hundreds of young news vendors stood up to two of the most powerful men in the U.S.--William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. The financial circumstance that forced the kids to strike--the extra penny that the newspaper owners wanted to charge the vendors to buy their papers--is clearly explained, but Brown also personalizes the story very well. He does have some vividly named "newsies," to work with, including Kid Blink, Crazy Airborn, and Tiny Tim, who, when asked how long the strikers could hold out, answers, "Ferever." Like all David-versus-Goliath stories, this has a natural rooting factor, though the compromise ending may slow the cheering. The loose-lined, sepia-tone ink-and-wash artwork is less successful than the go-go text at capturing the fervor of the strike. It has the appropriate old-time look, but is, occasionally, just monotonous. The rousing cover, however, with the boys on the march, will grab kids, and the story inside brings history home to readers the same age as those who lived it. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Roaring Brook Press; First Edition edition (August 26, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596430036
• ISBN-13: 978-1596430037
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 9.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #448,170 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Uplifting., June 5, 2010

By 

Ulyyf "Connie" (NYC) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Kid Blink Beats the World (Hardcover)

Most history happens to adults, which can make it a hard sell for kids.

This bit of history is different, as it was a strike by kids, back in the Good Ol' Days where children were put to work to support their families. You might be familiar with this strike if you're a fan of the Disney Musical Newsies. At any rate, this is a story sure to fascinate kids, a story of injustice and hardship being perpetuated by grown-ups on children - and the children winning. (Well, compromising.)

Like all of Don Brown's books the text is enlivened with actual quotes from the people engaged in the strike. This is a good addition to any library.