An exquisite pictorial love letter to Black children around the world.
A photographic celebration of the beauty and versatility of Black children and their hair.
The acclaimed husband-and-wife child photography team transforms what began as the arresting AfroArt series on Instagram into a beautiful, inspiring photography book. As the Bethencourts write, “we didn’t just want to question traditional beauty standards—we wanted to shatter them. We wanted to create images that flew in the face of the established spectrum of acceptable standards of beauty.” The result is a showcase of the “talent, drive, determination, and ingenuity in our [Black] youth across the diaspora.” Some of the children featured hail from across the U.S., London, and Paris. Others are adorned in brilliantly colored fabrics and accessories from the countries where they live or have familial roots, including Ethiopia, South Africa, Kenya, and Senegal. All of the models are meticulously styled in bold, ornate fashions, with equally bold, creative hairstyles. Their ensembles and accoutrements honor Black people’s majestic ancestral past, rich present, and dauntlessly imagined futures. Whether clad in white cotton Sunday morning dresses with saddle shoes or intricate metal and beaded jewelry, this “next generation of free thinkers and cultural innovators” displays their power. Some images are accompanied by notes on the children’s interests and the adversities they face. There’s the contemplative gaze of 10-year-old, science-and-math–loving Celai, the “youngest professional runway model to walk in an all-adult lineup in New York Fashion Week”; the pure joy of a trio of little girls wearing roller skates; and 9-year-old Darryl, whose family had a hard time finding a school in Nairobi that allows dreadlocks. There are activists and aspiring astronauts; friends Pokuaa and Sarah, who excel at academics and sports but can’t go to school every day because they also work to support their farming families; and a 13-year-old CEO who founded her own clothing line to fight racism and colorism.
An exquisite pictorial love letter to Black children around the world.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-20456-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Aug. 18, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A familiar format, but a timely reminder that cities are made up of individuals, each with their own stories.
Portraits in a post-pandemic world.
After the Covid-19 lockdowns left New York City’s streets empty, many claimed that the city was “gone forever.” It was those words that inspired Stanton, whose previous collections include Humans of New York (2013), Humans of New York: Stories (2015), and Humans (2020), to return to the well once more for a new love letter to the city’s humanity and diversity. Beautifully laid out in hardcover with crisp, bright images, each portrait of a New Yorker is accompanied by sparse but potent quotes from Stanton’s interviews with his subjects. Early in the book, the author sequences three portraits—a couple laughing, then looking serious, then the woman with tears in her eyes—as they recount the arc of their relationship, transforming each emotional beat of their story into an affecting visual narrative. In another, an unhoused man sits on the street, his husky eating out of his hand. The caption: “I’m a late bloomer.” Though the pandemic isn’t mentioned often, Stanton focuses much of the book on optimistic stories of the post-pandemic era. Among the most notable profiles is Myles Smutney, founder of the Free Store Project, whose story of reclaiming boarded‑up buildings during the lockdowns speaks to the city’s resilience. In reusing the same formula from his previous books, the author confirms his thesis: New York isn’t going anywhere. As he writes in his lyrical prologue, “Just as one might dive among coral reefs to marvel at nature, one can come to New York City to marvel at humanity.” The book’s optimism paints New York as a city where diverse lives converge in moments of beauty, joy, and collective hope.
A familiar format, but a timely reminder that cities are made up of individuals, each with their own stories.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781250277589
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
