Through Chanel’s incomplete story, Byrne encourages readers to explore their creativity and remain steadfast in following...
More a celebration of Coco Chanel’s creative spirit than a straightforward biography, this book portrays the petite French waif as a smiling, self-confident rule breaker with an innate flair for fashion and a big imagination.
Chanel found it difficult to follow the rigid discipline of the strict nuns who ran the orphanage where she grew up. She was, however, inspired by the “dramatic and mysterious” black-and-white habits they wore. With an eye for style and a talent for sewing, Chanel was determined to follow her own unique vision of fashion as soon as she was old enough to leave the orphanage. Chanel’s practical yet fashionable designs did not impress everyone, but her emphasis on comfort, simplicity, and breaking long-standing rules of fashion caught on and changed forever how women dressed. Byrne’s illustrations in pen and ink and watercolor are appropriately stylish and energetic. The endpapers feature women wearing Chanel’s many creations. In an afterword, Byrne notes the difficulty of distinguishing fact from fiction due to Chanel’s penchant for embellishing stories throughout her life. Byrne does not acknowledge established controversies about Chanel: her anti-Semitism, homophobia, and collaboration with the Nazi occupation. Omitted from the bibliography is Hal Vaughan’s adult biography Sleeping with the Enemy (2001), which discusses them.
Through Chanel’s incomplete story, Byrne encourages readers to explore their creativity and remain steadfast in following their dreams—but aren’t there other, better subjects that could serve the same purpose? (selected bibliography) (Picture book/biography. 5-9)Pub Date: March 19, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3425-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
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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