Draped in striking hues and compelling from cover to cover—a gem of a biography!
Freedom can come in all forms, backgrounds, textures, and hues.
Endpapers depicting brilliant pink fabric foreshadow the motif of fabric and color to come. Poetic prose depicts Christo’s early life, filled with colorful books as well as political and social strife after the Nazis arrived in his Bulgarian town. Orange and red flames leap across the spread from the fireplace in which Christo’s parents burned those colorful, now-dangerous books to keep their family safe. This brutal event influenced Christo, who sought to depict truth and life in his art. Fleeing to France, he discovered an affinity for sculpture—in particular, for wrapping objects in canvas. When he met Jeanne-Claude, they moved to America to pursue their dreams. Though it took 25 years, at last their installation The Gates appeared in Central Park in New York as miles of orange fabric billowed in the wind like the flames in the fireplace, a tangerine curtain defying fascism. Filled with watercolor and gouache whorls outlined in black, each spread pops and crackles with dazzling colors. Close-up vignettes accompany full-page illustrations, enticing readers to slow down and look again and again. The concise yet vivid text is supplemented by extensive backmatter that includes photographs, author’s and artist’s notes, and more. This one is perfect for storytimes and interdisciplinary curriculum units alike. Chisto and Jeanne-Claude present White; background characters are racially diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Draped in striking hues and compelling from cover to cover—a gem of a biography! (notes, selected sources) (Picture-book biography. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-4197-5611-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
A sanitized version of a too-short life.
A bobblehead avatar of the teenage writer and symbol of the Holocaust presents her life as an inspiration.
From a big-eared babyhood and a childhood spent “writing stories” to fleeing Germany for Amsterdam, Anne’s pre-Annex life is sketched. Narrating in the first person, the cartoon Anne explains that Nazis “didn’t like those of us who were Jewish or other groups who were different from them.” Hitler is presented as a leader “who blamed the Jews for all of Germany’s problems, even though we hadn’t done anything wrong.” Then in short order Anne receives her diary as a birthday present, the family goes into hiding, and Anne finds solace in the attic looking at the chestnut tree and writing. Effectively, Annex scenes are squeezed between broad black borders. Illustrations present four snippets of quotes from her diary, including “I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.” Narrator Anne says, “You can always find light in the darkest places. That’s what hope is,” as she clutches the diary with Shabbat candles on one side and a menorah burning brightly on the other. In the next double-page spread, an international array of modern-day visitors standing outside the Anne Frank House briefly, in speech bubbles, wraps up the story of the Holocaust, the diary, the Annex, and the chestnut tree. Anne’s wretched death in a concentration camp is mentioned only in a concluding timeline. I Am Benjamin Franklin publishes simultaneously. (This book was reviewed digitally with 7.5-by-15-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
A sanitized version of a too-short life. (photos, sources, further reading) (Picture book/biography. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-525-55594-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
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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