by Kari Lavelle ; illustrated by Bryan Collier ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 30, 2024
A testament to poetry’s expressive powers.
Poetry helped acclaimed actor James Earl Jones cope with stuttering as a child.
At home, behind the hay barn, James’ voice “flowed,” and all the animals listened. Talking to people, however, wasn’t so easy. Reading aloud at school was an ordeal: “Heart racing. / Kids laughing. / Mouth trying. / Voice blocking.” As James got older, his stutter persisted. Finally, he decided to stop talking altogether—for eight years. But he listened, wrote, and learned. In high school, Professor Crouch encouraged his students to recite poetry, and James balked. Alone, however, he uttered the “irresistible patterns of poetry,” even composing poems himself. One day, a shipment of grapefruit offered a sensory feast, inspiring a poem that Professor Crouch insisted James read aloud to prove his authorship. Asserting himself, James recited “Ode to Grapefruit” without a hitch to his classmates, who “cascaded into applause.” James continued to share his resonant newfound voice through acting, debate, and public speaking. Eventually, his “legendary sound” would be known worldwide. Lavelle, a speech pathologist, notes that though James still stuttered occasionally, he “knew his voice was important. Imperfectly perfect”—a particularly heartening sentiment for readers experiencing similar difficulties. Staccato sentences vividly reflect instances of blocked speech; Collier’s subdued yet striking watercolor and collage illustrations capture James’ discomfort and hard-won confidence. Backmatter includes an author’s note with further biographical details, as well as separate information about stuttering.
A testament to poetry’s expressive powers. (illustrator’s note, sources) (Picture-book biography. 6-8)Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9780593372760
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2024
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by Chris Paul ; illustrated by Courtney Lovett ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 10, 2023
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
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by Brad Meltzer ; illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulos ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 10, 2019
Blandly laudatory.
The iconic animator introduces young readers to each “happy place” in his life.
The tally begins with his childhood home in Marceline, Missouri, and climaxes with Disneyland (carefully designed to be “the happiest place on Earth”), but the account really centers on finding his true happy place, not on a map but in drawing. In sketching out his early flubs and later rocket to the top, the fictive narrator gives Ub Iwerks and other Disney studio workers a nod (leaving his labor disputes with them unmentioned) and squeezes in quick references to his animated films, from Steamboat Willie to Winnie the Pooh (sans Fantasia and Song of the South). Eliopoulos incorporates stills from the films into his cartoon illustrations and, characteristically for this series, depicts Disney as a caricature, trademark mustache in place on outsized head even in childhood years and child sized even as an adult. Human figures default to white, with occasional people of color in crowd scenes and (ahistorically) in the animation studio. One unidentified animator builds up the role-modeling with an observation that Walt and Mickey were really the same (“Both fearless; both resourceful”). An assertion toward the end—“So when do you stop being a child? When you stop dreaming”—muddles the overall follow-your-bliss message. A timeline to the EPCOT Center’s 1982 opening offers photos of the man with select associates, rodent and otherwise. An additional series entry, I Am Marie Curie, publishes simultaneously, featuring a gowned, toddler-sized version of the groundbreaking physicist accepting her two Nobel prizes.
Blandly laudatory. (bibliography) (Picture book/biography. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-7352-2875-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
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