LUCY!

A tribute to a groundbreaking comic actor with a lifelong gift for provoking laughter.

“I just have an obsession to make people laugh,” Lucille Ball is quoted as saying, and the authors focus on her talent for comedy. They trace the extroverted actor’s career, from early childhood to I Love Lucy—which debuted on TV in 1951 and is still bringing on the chortles in reruns all these years later. They pass up analyzing her comic style but do cover early trials, training, and breaks to demonstrate her determination to succeed. They also point in the main section to her breakthrough achievement as the first woman to produce a TV series; in the afterword, they discuss how her show was the first to feature both a pregnant star and, in fictional and real-life husband Desi Arnaz, a Latine one. She also went on in later years to run Desilu Productions, the studio that made Star Trek and other famous series. Barrager’s neutral-toned, 1950s-style illustrations culminate in montages of riotous highlights from the show and racially diverse modern families laughing together at Ball’s antics; Ball herself stands out in earlier scenes thanks to her blue dress, then later her trademark bright red hair (which was dyed).

Less about the person than the icon, but warm and shiny for all that.