A thoughtful and colorful biography of one of Mexico’s most prolific artists.
A plunge into Frida Kahlo’s trailblazing life as an artist.
A relentless, self-taught artist, Kahlo did not let her battle with polio and her bus accident keep her from painting. Instead, her father helped her paint from bed by building her an easel that allowed her to paint lying down. This entry in the Portrait of an Artist series focuses on Kahlo’s magical realism in her paintings, presenting her as the dreamer of “fantastical scenes.” Kahlo’s relationship with fellow artist Diego Rivera is touched upon. However, neither the relationship nor its turbulence is the main focus of the text, as Brownridge chooses to display Kahlo as an artist in her own right. In addition, the text contains information on the “firsts” that Kahlo achieved: the first exhibition in New York City by a Mexican and the first Mexican in a Louvre gallery. Dieckmann’s illustrations, made with both traditional and digital media, show the vibrancy of life with which Kahlo surrounded herself and often follow the color palette established in the painting shown on the page. In a similar way, Édith Carron uses bright colored pencils in Brownridge’s book about Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh to complement his style. An invitation to visit Kahlo’s “bright blue house,” now a museum, leaves readers desirous to learn more.
A thoughtful and colorful biography of one of Mexico’s most prolific artists. (Picture book/biography. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-78603-642-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Wide Eyed Editions
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Let this one fly away.
Young Maria Merian had a passion for butterflies and moths that led to a lifelong, convention-defining career of natural-history illustration.
When the young artist was growing up in 17th-century Germany, butterflies and moths were thought to arise through spontaneous generation and women interested in insects might be seen as witches. Still, Maria not only painted the insects she saw around her, she brought home silkworms and studied them, watching their metamorphosis and painting what she saw, including their favorite plants and flowers. Continuing to observe and paint from nature in her adult life, she also taught and published books of her illustrations, raised a family, and traveled as far as Suriname to explore the natural world. In contrast to Margarita Engle and Julie Paschkis’ Summer Birds (2010), in which a first-person narrative captures Maria’s childhood voice and joy in the natural world and the illustrations demonstrate the culture’s changing approach to nature, Marsh and Vanzo present a more distant, staid story for young readers. Vanzo’s illustrations, drawn with pencil and digitally colored, are modestly realistic, more so for the insects than humans (all white, including in Suriname). Sadly, the monarch butterflies that intrigue freckle-faced Maria in these images don’t exist in Germany. Even the title is unfortunate: Butterflies and moths are not bugs. An author’s note provides further information about this early naturalist. A few of the artist’s original illustrations are included and sourced, but no sources are given for other information.
Let this one fly away. (Picture book/biography. 4-7)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8075-9257-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A timely if unpolished entry in the Little People, BIG DREAMS series.
A first introduction to the greatest scientist of the past half-century.
Hawking makes a worthy but not an easy subject for an elementary-grade profile, as the likelihood that younger audiences aren’t really up on the ins and outs of quantum theory or gravitational singularities limits the author’s tally of his scientific contributions to a mention (sans meaningful context) of “Hawking radiation.” His other claim to fame, as an exemplar of the triumph of mind over physical disability, is far easier to grasp. For this, Hunt’s cartoon-style illustrations of a smiling scientist with idealized features on an oversized head help reinforce the notion that, as Hawking put it, “However difficult life may seem, there is always something that you can do and succeed at.” He leans on a cane before a wall of mathematical notations, takes his children for a spin on his wheelchair, and lectures to a rapt audience. The author (or an uncredited translator) uses some inept phrasing—a bald observation that eventually he “lost his voice and found a new one with a robotic drawl” can only leave readers confused, for instance. Illustrations of crowds place the white scientist among diverse gatherings. A closing note offers photos and a bit more detail plus a trio of titles for older readers.
A timely if unpolished entry in the Little People, BIG DREAMS series. (Picture book/biography. 5-7)Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-78603-333-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: Nov. 25, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2018
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