Uplifting narrative and images demonstrate how pain can be healed through love and literary expression.
A beloved writer overcomes childhood trauma.
When Maya Angelou was a little girl, she loved words: their sounds, their rhythms, the lyrics of songs. She especially adored Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poetry. At age 8, she suffered a devastating assault—referred to here as an attack and “painful trauma”—and believed that her words were later responsible for the death of the person responsible. For years, she read and listened but spoke aloud only to her older brother, Bailey. Finally, a neighbor, Mrs. Beulah Flowers, insisted that Maya carry her groceries home. Mrs. Flowers read to Maya from A Tale of Two Cities when the two reached her home. Maya admired Mrs. Flowers, and her words of encouragement and her “melodic voice” inspired her to begin speaking again. Mrs. Flowers also provided a book of poetry and asked Maya to memorize one to recite on her next visit. Connie and Peter Roop share a powerful episode from the early life of a heralded writer, speaker, and teacher. Their in-depth research—detailed in an authors’ note—results in a telling that emphasizes the loving family and community that nourished Maya despite the harsh reality of segregated Arkansas. Denmon’s elegantly constructed, earth-toned digital art supports this engaging story; the words in the illustrations speak to their importance to Maya.
Uplifting narrative and images demonstrate how pain can be healed through love and literary expression. (Picture-book biography. 4-8)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781481449267
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A supplemental rather than introductory book on the great artist.
Frida Kahlo’s strong affection for and identification with animals form the lens through which readers view her life and work in this picture-book biography.
Each two-page spread introduces one or more of her pets, comparing her characteristics to theirs and adding biographical details. Confusingly for young readers, the beginning pages reference pets she owned as an adult, yet the illustrations and events referred to come from earlier in her life. Bonito the parrot perches in a tree overlooking young Frida and her family in her childhood home and pops up again later, just before the first mention of Diego Rivera. Granizo, the fawn, another pet from her adult years, is pictured beside a young Frida and her father along with a description of “her life as a little girl.” The author’s note adds important details about Kahlo’s life and her significance as an artist, as well as recommending specific paintings that feature her beloved animals. Expressive acrylic paintings expertly evoke Kahlo’s style and color palette. While young animal lovers will identify with her attachment to her pets and may enjoy learning about the Aztec origins of her Xolo dogs and the meaning of turkeys in ancient Mexico, the book may be of most interest to those who already have an interest in Kahlo’s life.
A supplemental rather than introductory book on the great artist. (Picture book/biography. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7358-4269-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: NorthSouth
Review Posted Online: June 18, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A unique angle on a watershed moment in the civil rights era.
The New Orleans school child who famously broke the color line in 1960 while surrounded by federal marshals describes the early days of her experience from a 6-year-old’s perspective.
Bridges told her tale to younger children in 2009’s Ruby Bridges Goes to School, but here the sensibility is more personal, and the sometimes-shocking historical photos have been replaced by uplifting painted scenes. “I didn’t find out what being ‘the first’ really meant until the day I arrived at this new school,” she writes. Unfrightened by the crowd of “screaming white people” that greets her at the school’s door (she thinks it’s like Mardi Gras) but surprised to find herself the only child in her classroom, and even the entire building, she gradually realizes the significance of her act as (in Smith’s illustration) she compares a small personal photo to the all-White class photos posted on a bulletin board and sees the difference. As she reflects on her new understanding, symbolic scenes first depict other dark-skinned children marching into classes in her wake to friendly greetings from lighter-skinned classmates (“School is just school,” she sensibly concludes, “and kids are just kids”) and finally an image of the bright-eyed icon posed next to a soaring bridge of reconciliation. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A unique angle on a watershed moment in the civil rights era. (author and illustrator notes, glossary) (Autobiographical picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-75388-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
PERSPECTIVES
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