A young artist and her art live on in this tender, heartfelt book. We must remember.
A heartbreaking tribute to a gifted young artist killed in the Uvalde, Texas, school massacre.
Even when she was a baby, Alithia Ramirez adored making art, and as she got older, she used various media to create colorful drawings. Making art was sometimes hard for Alithia: She couldn’t always re-create exactly what she saw, but she kept going, as artists do, drawing everyone she saw around her, including herself, and she drew no matter her mood. She dreamed of studying art in Paris when she grew up. She drew the world as she wished it was—full of color, love, peace, and hope. Lemay states that though an artist may die, her art will live on. A poignant author’s note informs readers that Alithia was one of the victims of the May 24, 2022, school shooting in Uvalde. Written with her parents’ support, the simple, upbeat text gives readers a good idea of the child and artist Alithia Ramirez was. Her smiling photograph appears in the backmatter, among examples of her artwork, which are also interspersed throughout the book. The author’s note further explains that Lemay went to great pains to re-create Alithia’s drawn self-portrait, her family portrait, and her horse and chicken drawings. All the other artwork is Alithia’s, reproduced with parental permission and digitally scanned into the illustrator’s own art. Alithia and her family are Latine; background characters are racially diverse.
A young artist and her art live on in this tender, heartfelt book. We must remember. (discussion questions) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2023
ISBN: 9781612546490
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Brown Books Kids
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
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Bridges Goes to School, but here the sensibility is more personal, and the sometimes-shocking historical photos have been replaced by uplifting painted scenes.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
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
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