Delightful. Plork!
Celebrate the life of artist, nun, and activist Corita Kent.
When Frances Elizabeth Kent first receives art lessons as a sixth grader, she becomes, in Burgess’ poetic telling, “a bird in the breeze of her brush”; the phrase is repeated with powerful effect in the final spread of this compelling picture-book biography. As an adult, Frances joins the Order of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, becoming Sister Mary Corita. The book chronicles her years of teaching, during which she coins the portmanteau plork, "when play and work are one”; her training in silk-screening; and her transformation of the art department of Immaculate Heart College into a “lively center of art and design.” With art that encourages seeing “the sacred in the everyday” and her passion for speaking out against social injustices and war, Corita makes waves and angers the archbishop. After release from her vows, she moves to Boston to continue to make art. The text shines with a deeply felt reverence for Corita’s work and makes explicit her influence as a teacher, artist, and activist. Design choices, including a double gatefold in the book’s center and a surprise cover beneath the dust jacket, emphasize Corita’s inspired mission. The lively, brightly colored illustrations feature occasional photo collage elements and incorporate a vivid blue bird as a symbol of Corita and her artistic spirit. Corita is White; some classroom and community scenes include characters of color. Detailed backmatter fleshes out Corita’s life and accomplishments.
Delightful. Plork! (chronology, author's note, illustrator's note, quotation sources) (Picture book/biography. 6-12)Pub Date: July 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-59270-316-6
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Enchanted Lion Books
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
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
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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