A love song to Lauper and to tenacious oddballs everywhere.
The latest pop singer to get the picture-book biography treatment: Cyndi Lauper.
An omniscient narrator introduces young Lauper as a square peg of a kid who grew up in 1960s Queens with her boisterous, cash-strapped Italian American family: “There was shouting, sadness, and worry, but there was also music, laughter, and joy.” Lauper had creativity going for her—she sewed her own clothes and began writing songs after her sister taught her to play guitar—but she left home at 17 because “things happened in Cyndi’s life that made her feel small and scared and silent.” (Running through the book is a dark current—at one point Lauper lived in a hostel for runaways—that makes it more suitable for a somewhat older audience.) Directionless, Lauper took an art class that eventually led her to “her people”: fellow fringe-dwelling artists. She ultimately found a way to mix her keen visual sense with music, working her personal style into her singer-songwriter persona, and went on to record some gangbusters tunes that launched a storied career. In Barrager’s art, cartoonish characters are outlined like cutouts and set against more intricate backgrounds; her images have the pizzazz and anything-goes spirit of the book's subject, and their vibrant palette matches Lauper’s own sartorial choices. Throughout this feisty and encouraging bio, references to rainbows hint at Lauper’s longtime LGBTQ+ advocacy, which is spotlighted in an authors’ note.
A love song to Lauper and to tenacious oddballs everywhere. (Picture-book biography. 6-10)Pub Date: April 21, 2026
ISBN: 9781665962001
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
A tighter focus would make this fascinating life story even more intriguing.
In this graphic memoir by sports journalist Shah, a ninth grader pursues his passion in the face of familial expectations pushing him toward a medical career, while also navigating the perils of high school social life.
It’s 1995, and Indian American Amar is desperate to meet the Chicago Bulls—Michael Jordan, in particular—when they stop by his Orlando, Florida, school. A lucky break leads him to his first sports interview, with Phil Jackson, and his tenacity takes him further, leading to multiple conversations with Shaquille O’Neal. But Amar’s luck in journalism doesn’t spill over to his relationship with his crush, blond Kasey Page (“like a mixture of Cameron Diaz, Tinkerbell, and heaven”), or his efforts to remain close with best friends Rohit and Cherian, who start spending more time with other classmates. The work relies on captions as much as plot developments to propel the story. It also follows a broad cast of characters—close and former friends, antagonists, supportive adults, and famous athletes—who appear in multiple storylines. The story accurately depicts the complexities of life as a young teen, though overlapping life challenges pull it in multiple directions, leaving some threads underexplored and hastily wrapped up. Doucet illustrates the characters using loose, disjointed outlines that give the artwork a sense of movement, and the colorful backgrounds use patterns and action lines to indicate a wide array of emotions.
A tighter focus would make this fascinating life story even more intriguing. (author’s note, photographs) (Graphic memoir. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2025
ISBN: 9781546110514
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
In no particular order and using no set criteria for his selections, veteran sportscaster Berman pays tribute to an arbitrary gallery of baseball stars—all familiar names and, except for the Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez, retired from play for decades. Repeatedly taking the stance that statistics are just numbers but then reeling off batting averages, home-run totals, wins (for pitchers) and other data as evidence of greatness, he offers career highlights in a folksy narrative surrounded by photos, side comments and baseball-card–style notes in side boxes. Readers had best come to this with some prior knowledge, since he casually drops terms like “slugging percentage,” “dead ball era” and “barnstorming” without explanation and also presents a notably superficial picture of baseball’s history—placing the sport’s “first half-century” almost entirely in the 1900s, for instance, and condescendingly noting that Jackie Robinson’s skill led Branch Rickey to decide that he “was worthy of becoming the first black player to play in the majors.” The awesome feats of Ruth, Mantle, the Gibsons Bob and Josh, Hank Aaron, Ty Cobb and the rest are always worth a recap—but this one’s strictly minor league. (Nonfiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4022-3886-4
Page Count: 138
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
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