Soaring tribute to a voice less well known that it should be, at least outside Latin America.
An introduction to an Argentinian singer and social activist known as “the voice of the voiceless.”
Beginning with the future cantora’s birth in a region where “the valleys are vibrant and the high peaks of the mountains reach the sky,” Fernández Nitsche writes lyrically of how Mercedes Sosa first gained attention for her voice in a radio competition and went on to sing folk songs, accompanying herself on a bombo (drum), in support of social causes, becoming “a bridge between cultures, languages, and generations.” Sosa endured arrest (in the middle of a concert!) and years of exile when the military dictatorship that came to power in the late 1970s found her protest songs threatening. The author relegates mention of the subject’s European and Indigenous parentage, as well as most other biographical details, to an appended timeline in order to focus on her spirit and her legacy: “Mercedes’s voice still beats strongly today, just like her bombo did.” And whether standing on stage, behind bars, or amid banner-wielding marchers in the illustrations, swaddled in heavy woven robes, her solid figure has a suitably iconic look. Warm swirls of color throughout make clear the power of her voice. Sosa died in 2009, but a playlist in the backmatter will help younger audiences unfamiliar with her name understand what they’ve been missing. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Soaring tribute to a voice less well known that it should be, at least outside Latin America. (author’s note, Spanish glossary, select sources) (Picture-book biography. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9780593645970
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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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