Sweet, feel-good fare for young Swifties.
A pithy panegyric for the planet’s highest-paid and possibly most popular performing artist.
Considering that Taylor Swift is still producing music, she may seem an odd choice for a biographical series titled Who Was? Still, for younger readers who can’t get enough Taylor, Mayer lays out the oft-told essentials of her career from birth and early signs of talent to a few months beyond the end of the “Eras” tour in December of 2024—with some choice bits about friendship bracelets, baking cookies, “fairy godmother” charitable work, and how Swift color-codes outfits to match her albums. Further insight into her character is confined to repeated references to how she stays “true to herself” and insists on “saying what she want[s] to say.” No mention is made of her dating life or (squeal!) recent engagement. With much use of pinks and purples, Mariana’s illustrations depict the superstar winking up at readers from the title page, then go on to scenes of her performing in increasingly large venues after her public debut in 2004 at age 14, meeting fans of diverse skin color, and bustling about her kitchen at Christmas. She “has proven over and over again,” the author concludes in a final line, “that a young woman should never be underestimated.”
Sweet, feel-good fare for young Swifties. (awards list, bibliography, website, discography, timeline) (Picture-book biography. 6-8)Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9798217052059
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Oct. 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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 unique angle on a watershed moment in the civil rights era.
The New Orleans school child who famously broke the color line in 1960 while surrounded by federal marshals describes the early days of her experience from a 6-year-old’s perspective.
Bridges told her tale to younger children in 2009’s Ruby Bridges Goes to School, but here the sensibility is more personal, and the sometimes-shocking historical photos have been replaced by uplifting painted scenes. “I didn’t find out what being ‘the first’ really meant until the day I arrived at this new school,” she writes. Unfrightened by the crowd of “screaming white people” that greets her at the school’s door (she thinks it’s like Mardi Gras) but surprised to find herself the only child in her classroom, and even the entire building, she gradually realizes the significance of her act as (in Smith’s illustration) she compares a small personal photo to the all-White class photos posted on a bulletin board and sees the difference. As she reflects on her new understanding, symbolic scenes first depict other dark-skinned children marching into classes in her wake to friendly greetings from lighter-skinned classmates (“School is just school,” she sensibly concludes, “and kids are just kids”) and finally an image of the bright-eyed icon posed next to a soaring bridge of reconciliation. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A unique angle on a watershed moment in the civil rights era. (author and illustrator notes, glossary) (Autobiographical picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-75388-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
PERSPECTIVES
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