This inspirational story fails to inspire.
Shy 5-year-old Leticia wants to be on TV, but no one on the screen looks like her.
Having come from Mexico, her parents know the value of education to achieve success, and they encourage their daughter to work hard in school to overcome her shyness and to go to college in order to pursue her goal of becoming a news anchor. After earning an internship at a Sacramento news outfit, Leticia knows that newscasting is her dream job. She endures years of writing her own scripts and shooting her own stories until the day she’s been waiting for finally arrives: Channel 3 Sacramento hires her as a news reporter. She did it! Unfortunately, Ordaz’s uninspired text results in a dispassionate catalog of her achievements, from convincing her father to get another job so she could be fitted with orthodontic braces to landing the coveted anchor position during her pregnancy. There is little emotional engagement. The dearth of examples of personal growth and the surmounting of obstacles—such as learning English as a child and achieving success in a predominantly White industry on her own merits—means there is little tension in the story. Colombian artist Calle’s illustrations, cartoonish with exaggerated eyes, only serve to widen the emotional distance between subject and readers. The absence of autobiographical backmatter further lessens the value of this latest addition to the documentation of the achievements of people of color in the U.S.
This inspirational story fails to inspire. (glossary) (Picture book/memoir. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-59702-151-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Immedium
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
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
Self-serving to be sure but also chock-full of worthy values and sentiments.
The junior senator from California introduces family and friends as everyday superheroes.
The endpapers are covered with cascades of, mostly, early childhood snapshots (“This is me contemplating the future”—caregivers of toddlers will recognize that abstracted look). In between, Harris introduces heroes in her life who have shaped her character: her mom and dad, whose superpowers were, respectively, to make her feel special and brave; an older neighbor known for her kindness; grandparents in India and Jamaica who “[stood] up for what’s right” (albeit in unspecified ways); other relatives and a teacher who opened her awareness to a wider world; and finally iconic figures such as Thurgood Marshall and Constance Baker Motley who “protected people by using the power of words and ideas” and whose examples inspired her to become a lawyer. “Heroes are…YOU!” she concludes, closing with a bulleted Hero Code and a timeline of her legal and political career that ends with her 2017 swearing-in as senator. In group scenes, some of the figures in the bright, simplistic digital illustrations have Asian features, some are in wheelchairs, nearly all are people of color. Almost all are smiling or grinning. Roe provides everyone identified as a role model with a cape and poses the author, who is seen at different ages wearing an identifying heart pin or decoration, next to each.
Self-serving to be sure but also chock-full of worthy values and sentiments. (Picture book/memoir. 5-8)Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-984837-49-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Jan. 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
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