Inspiringly shows how Maria Tallchief persisted and made her dreams come true.
Maria Tallchief is an American ballet legend, but she came from a humble beginning.
Elizabeth “Betty” Marie Tall Chief grew up on the Osage reservation in northeastern Oklahoma at a time when Osage children were told not to speak their language and to forget their tribal customs even as they enjoyed uncommon wealth due to their reservation’s rich oil deposits. She and her family attended secret powwows, and the songs’ powerful rhythms remained with Betty all her life. After moving to California at 8, she began dance school. Not only was she good at ballet, but she moved ahead academically. But Betty was bullied for her name, so she changed it to one word: Tallchief. Betty “lived and breathed the art of ballet,” listening when her mother offered wise words and encouragement to “dance with all your heart….You shouldn’t just expect a role to be handed to you.” Years later, when she traveled around the world, dancing in famous ballets, she again changed her name from Betty to a variation of her middle name Maria but resisted advice to change her surname, retaining it to honor her family and her Osage identity. Day (Upper Skagit) clearly shows that even as Tallchief became a star in the world of ballet, she never forgot her roots and gives readers necessary history and context to understand their importance. Flint’s black-and-white illustrations excel at depictions of Tallchief in motion.
Inspiringly shows how Maria Tallchief persisted and made her dreams come true. (author's note, bibliography) (Biography. 6-9)Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-11580-0
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2021
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses.
An NBA star pays tribute to the influence of his grandfather.
In the same vein as his Long Shot (2009), illustrated by Frank Morrison, this latest from Paul prioritizes values and character: “My granddad Papa Chilly had dreams that came true,” he writes, “so maybe if I listen and watch him, / mine will too.” So it is that the wide-eyed Black child in the simply drawn illustrations rises early to get to the playground hoops before anyone else, watches his elder working hard and respecting others, hears him cheering along with the rest of the family from the stands during games, and recalls in a prose afterword that his grandfather wasn’t one to lecture but taught by example. Paul mentions in both the text and the backmatter that Papa Chilly was the first African American to own a service station in North Carolina (his presumed dream) but not that he was killed in a robbery, which has the effect of keeping the overall tone positive and the instructional content one-dimensional. Figures in the pictures are mostly dark-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-81003-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
A pivotal moment in a child’s life, at once stirring and authentically personal.
Before growing up to become a major figure in the civil rights movement, a boy finds a role model.
Buffing up a childhood tale told by her renowned father, Young Shelton describes how young Andrew saw scary men marching in his New Orleans neighborhood (“It sounded like they were yelling ‘Hi, Hitler!’ ”). In response to his questions, his father took him to see a newsreel of Jesse Owens (“a runner who looked like me”) triumphing in the 1936 Olympics. “Racism is a sickness,” his father tells him. “We’ve got to help folks like that.” How? “Well, you can start by just being the best person you can be,” his father replies. “It’s what you do that counts.” In James’ hazy chalk pastels, Andrew joins racially diverse playmates (including a White child with an Irish accent proudly displaying the nickel he got from his aunt as a bribe to stop playing with “those Colored boys”) in tag and other games, playing catch with his dad, sitting in the midst of a cheering crowd in the local theater’s segregated balcony, and finally visualizing himself pelting down a track alongside his new hero—“head up, back straight, eyes focused,” as a thematically repeated line has it, on the finish line. An afterword by Young Shelton explains that she retold this story, told to her many times growing up, drawing from conversations with Young and from her own research; family photos are also included. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A pivotal moment in a child’s life, at once stirring and authentically personal. (illustrator’s note) (Autobiographical picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-545-55465-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
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