Children will come away with a hazy sense of Prince but a firmer grasp on the healing power of music in hard times.
Lavender-washed pages background this picture-book tribute to Prince.
Author Joy grew up in Prince’s childhood neighborhood in Minneapolis’ Northside and even performed with him once; her lyrical tribute to the groundbreaking Black musician is allusive and evocative, eliciting feelings rather than unreeling facts. “Shouts and silence, / slamming doors; / whispering lilacs, basement floors; / the thud of a basketball, / boom-boom; / the echo of lonely in / a crowded room.” Lines such as these paint a picture of an unnamed “beautiful boy” and a difficult childhood characterized by hunger and a constant shuffle from household to household. Basketball and, especially, music coaxed from a guitar lightened these “ordinary days.” Alcántara contributes vignettes of a small but recognizable Prince huddling beneath a piano or sleeping on a couch. These images of unsettled unhappiness are balanced by paintings of the young artist concentrating with his eyes closed over a guitar or piano, the lavender hues warming to purple with the introduction of red tones. A three-page author’s note furnishes any facts that the primary text elides; children content to mull over its moods can do so, while their caregivers can glean necessary context for when their little ones ask questions. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Children will come away with a hazy sense of Prince but a firmer grasp on the healing power of music in hard times. (discography) (Picture-book biography. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9781250797032
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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
A picture book more than worthy of sharing the shelf with Alan Schroeder and Jerry Pinkney’s Minty (1996) and Carole Boston...
A memorable, lyrical reverse-chronological walk through the life of an American icon.
In free verse, Cline-Ransome narrates the life of Harriet Tubman, starting and ending with a train ride Tubman takes as an old woman. “But before wrinkles formed / and her eyes failed,” Tubman could walk tirelessly under a starlit sky. Cline-Ransome then describes the array of roles Tubman played throughout her life, including suffragist, abolitionist, Union spy, and conductor on the Underground Railroad. By framing the story around a literal train ride, the Ransomes juxtapose the privilege of traveling by rail against Harriet’s earlier modes of travel, when she repeatedly ran for her life. Racism still abounds, however, for she rides in a segregated train. While the text introduces readers to the details of Tubman’s life, Ransome’s use of watercolor—such a striking departure from his oil illustrations in many of his other picture books—reveals Tubman’s humanity, determination, drive, and hope. Ransome’s lavishly detailed and expansive double-page spreads situate young readers in each time and place as the text takes them further into the past.
A picture book more than worthy of sharing the shelf with Alan Schroeder and Jerry Pinkney’s Minty (1996) and Carole Boston Weatherford and Kadir Nelson’s Moses (2006). (Picture book/biography. 5-8)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2047-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
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