Exhilarating.
The first African American Rockette tells her story.
Jennifer Jones fell in love with dance in her first class at age 9. Using her body to express herself as she danced ballet, jazz, and tap, she felt free and bold. Outside of class, though, she was painfully shy—her mother was white and her father was Black, and their family stood out in their New Jersey town. After an ignorant clerk yelled at her for dancing in a store (“Girls like you don’t become dancers”), Jennifer’s joy was nearly diminished, but her father brought home a piece of linoleum for Jennifer to practice dancing on. From then on, she danced every day and felt free from the ignorance of others. Her first stage performance, in fourth grade, “felt like home,” but that clerk’s mean comment still lingered. When her parents took her to see The Wiz on Broadway, the sight of the all-Black cast gave her the confidence she needed to eventually audition for the Radio City Rockettes, where she danced for 15 years. Though this tale explores painful emotions, its focus on Jennifer’s personal experience and the pleasure she found in dance make it an absolute delight. In relatable first-person narration, Jones ends the narrative by addressing children: “What will your story be?” Paul deftly uses gestures and facial expressions in the line-and-color illustrations to lead readers through Jones’ emotional journey. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Exhilarating. (about Jennifer Jones and the Rockettes) (Picture-book autobiography. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 31, 2023
ISBN: 9780063087064
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2023
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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