Affirming and uplifting.
How Mesher became Radio City’s first visibly disabled dancer.
Sydney was born with just five fingers, but her 10 toes caught her mother’s eye first: Sydney, she declared, would be a dancer. Confirming Mom’s prediction, Sydney was “twirling, swaying, and leaping” before she could crawl. When young Sydney entered dance class, however, some kids called her a monster. Fortunately, Sydney heeded Mom’s advice: “Keep dancing.” In college, she became one of the first female backup dancers for K-pop group BTS. A broken foot made her stumble but was fortunately only “intermission”; she obtained a dance degree and landed modeling gigs, hoping to encourage others like her. Her biggest dream, though, was to be a Radio City Rockette in New York City. Despite several rejections, she tried “one / more / time”…and became the first Rockette with a visible disability. Both text and illustrations eloquently evoke dancing’s expressive capacity. Sydney’s sadness is “a slow dance with many turns and sweeping gestures”; after she realizes that not wearing a prosthetic hand feels more natural, her self-confidence becomes “a wild freestyle number.” Quek’s fluid cartoon illustrations use space and perspective to emphasize Sydney’s emotions. Aspiring dancers will especially enjoy her journey, and readers with limb differences will find reassurance that their bodies, too, are “worth celebrating.” Sydney presents white; background characters are racially diverse.
Affirming and uplifting. (author’s note from Mesher, photos) (Picture-book biography. 4-7)Pub Date: Oct. 31, 2023
ISBN: 9781250842671
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
It’s a bit sketchy of historical detail, but it’s coherent, inspirational, and engaging without indulging in rapturous...
A first introduction to the iconic civil rights activist.
“She was very little and very brave, and she always tried to do what was right.” Without many names or any dates, Kaiser traces Parks’ life and career from childhood to later fights for “fair schools, jobs, and houses for black people” as well as “voting rights, women’s rights and the rights of people in prison.” Though her refusal to change seats and the ensuing bus boycott are misleadingly presented as spontaneous acts of protest, young readers will come away with a clear picture of her worth as a role model. Though recognizable thanks to the large wire-rimmed glasses Parks sports from the outset as she marches confidently through Antelo’s stylized illustrations, she looks childlike throughout (as characteristic of this series), and her skin is unrealistically darkened to match the most common shade visible on other African-American figures. In her co-published Emmeline Pankhurst (illustrated by Ana Sanfelippo), Kaiser likewise simplistically implies that Great Britain led the way in granting universal women’s suffrage but highlights her subject’s courageous quest for justice, and Isabel Sánchez Vegara caps her profile of Audrey Hepburn (illustrated by Amaia Arrazola) with the moot but laudable claim that “helping people across the globe” (all of whom in the pictures are dark-skinned children) made Hepburn “happier than acting or dancing ever had.” All three titles end with photographs and timelines over more-detailed recaps plus at least one lead to further information.
It’s a bit sketchy of historical detail, but it’s coherent, inspirational, and engaging without indulging in rapturous flights of hyperbole. (Picture book/biography. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-78603-018-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The artistic condescension and incongruities make this a marginal offering at best.
On Dec. 12, 1531, in newly colonized Mexico City, the Virgin Mary appeared to an Aztec farmer, Juan Diego, and spoke to him in Nahuatl, his native language, telling him to ask the bishop to build her church.
Despite Mary’s command, the Spanish bishop refused to comply until, after repeat visits, Juan Diego opened his cloak and roses cascaded out, revealing the image of Mary with the skin tone and features of an Indigenous Mexican woman. The bishop finally relented and had the church built on the hill of Tepeyac, where millions visit to this day. Demi’s retelling is both often at odds with the historical record and unabashedly Euro-centric: “In 1519 AD, the powerful Spanish conquistador, Hernan Cortes, landed in Mexico.” Cortes arguably was not a “conquistador” prior to the Mexican campaign. He had been a bureaucrat and owner of Indigenous slaves in Hispaniola and Cuba. Additionally, Demi’s familiar style is incongruous against the setting of 16th-century Mexico. Juan Diego and his fellow Aztecs are garbed in sombreros and clothing from the Mexican Revolution—more than 300 years in the future—and the Spanish conquistadors bear a resemblance to images of Mongol warriors. Furthermore, the Virgin herself appears more Asian then Aztec, and Juan Diego’s childlike depiction belies the fact that he was 57 at the time. Demi also fails to portray the modern basilica even though she ends her retelling in modern Mexico.
The artistic condescension and incongruities make this a marginal offering at best. (further information) (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-937786-73-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Wisdom Tales
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2018
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