Focusing on Fred and Adele’s childhood and acts, Orgill chronicles the siblings’ hard work as child dancers on the vaudeville and small-time music-hall circuits. Interesting details—such as the break taken so that the younger Fred could catch up with Adele’s physical development—are delivered in engrossing, if occasionally inelegant prose. (“The children went to school. For the first time, Fred sat at a desk in a classroom smelling of chalk.”) The narrative concludes by touching on Fred’s success as a solo artist and film star, as his and Adele’s paths diverge after 30 years as a duo. Jorisch’s digitally enhanced, mixed-media illustrations feature delicately inked line and a color palette evoking vintage costumery—a lovely approach for spotlighting both the dancers on stage and the architectural details of early-20th-century cityscapes. The handsome layout alternates pages of text facing bordered illustrations, with bordered text blocks against full-bleed double spreads. Pair this with aural and visual treats from the performers’ stellar careers. (selected bibliography of adult titles, selected discography, suggested films, television, website) (Picture book/biography. 6-10)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-7636-2121-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PLB 0-531-33137-7 At night, everyone in the family from the father to the dog is tuckered out, but when Uncle starts to tune his fiddle, toes start tapping and hands begin clapping. The energy of music will fuel the imaginations of those who loved Gray’s My Mama Had a Dancing Heart (1995). Exhilarating nonsense phrases reproduce the sounds of this bluegrass band: “Pick-a-pluck-a-plum” sings Miss Essie’s banjo; “Shu-sha-shu/Rick-a-rack-a-MEW!” is the sound of square dancers gliding around the room, while a cat dodges among their feet. The music brings the whole valley to life as the neighbors join in, and by the time everyone leaves, the big full moon is peeking over the hill. Bloom’s gentle illustrations conjure up the soft nights of early summer, the air scented with flowering trees and ringing with tunes. (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-531-30137-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PLB 0-7868-2469-7 Kirk (Bigger, 1998, etc.) spins out an extraterrestrial version of the familiar lullaby, featuring a four-armed father promising his banana-colored little one, among other prizes, a shooting star, an astronaut (against the astronaut’s wishes, it appears), a laser rifle, tools to build a spaceship and, finally, a good-night kiss. Giving his aliens the look of hard-shelled retro toys with large liquid eyes, the author develops a silent plotline—the little alien builds the spaceship because he’s melted the old one with his new laser—as they move from a near-Earth orbit to the bottle-strewn Milky Way. It’s a bedtime journey as loving, if not quite as soporific, as the original. (Picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-7868-0538-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1999
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