An appealing true tale of innovation and perseverance.
Where do new ideas come from?
No one knows exactly who created the flying disc. Was it cavekids who flung round rocks? Ancient Greeks who threw the first discus? 1920s New England college students who flew empty pie plates made by a baker named Frisbie? Or was it high school football player Fred Morrison, who started tossing the lids of popcorn tins in 1937? One thing is certain: Fred Morrison became entranced with the idea of a flying disc and was convinced that it could succeed. Zippy, well-paced text teeming with consonance and energetic, engaging retro-style illustrations trace Morrison’s development of the toy. After pursuing several prototypes, bouncing back from failure, partnering with his wife, and blending the idea with the space craze of the late ’40s and ’50s, Morrison was eventually able to sell his design—called the Pluto Platter—to Wham-O, a toy company that learned of the pie plates in New England, tweaked the name, and began to distribute the Frisbee we know today. A great choice for illustrating social-emotional skills, particularly resilience, as well as steps of the STEM process, this lighthearted, entertaining selection is full of kid appeal and is sure to provide inspiration and encourage inventive thinking. Period illustrations feature an all-White cast, with people of color appearing in a contemporary park scene.
An appealing true tale of innovation and perseverance. (author's note, sources) (Picture book/biography. 6-10)Pub Date: April 27, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-58089-880-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
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
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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